Lost Companions
by Sailor Kasterborous
Summary: Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and Donna Noble have suddenly appeared on the TARDIS, with no idea how they got there. How will the Doctor fix this one? Rated T, just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1  Complications

Hello all!

Here's my Doctor Who fanfiction. I put 11th Doctor under main character, but this story really has almost everyone in it. Please enjoy!

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><p>Across the universe, the stars glittered in unison, a perfect harmony of time and space, twinkling high above the planets. Alien galaxies and burning suns dappled the surreal scenery. Exotic planets of various color and shape orbited their own geometrical points, spinning in a near-perfect circle at thousands of miles per hour. The wind would have whispered coldly across the empty space, had there been any wind in space, and, if there was, the only thing there to enjoy it was a small box, colored TARDIS blue, which made sense, considering it was the TARDIS.<p>

Inside the ship, things looked calm and normal, and the people within were familiar with their surroundings, except for the small problem that almost none of them were supposed to be there.

The Doctor leaned on his knees from where he sat, perched on the railing across from the TARDIS console. He narrowed his bright green eyes, examining the three young women squirming under his gaze. He kept them trapped under his eyes for at least another minute before sitting up.

"You three," he murmured. "Are not supposed to be here."

Rose Tyler raised an eyebrow as she sighed, obviously disappointed with the reception she'd received. "Yeah, I thought that bit was obvious."

She stole a glance in either direction at the two women sitting on the console on either side of her. Martha Jones and Donna Noble both looked stunned.

"You've changed," they observed in unison.

The Doctor looked briefly taken aback, but Rose beat him to the answer. "Yeah, he does that. You guys knew already."

Martha blinked. "But we never actually _saw _it."

"Well there was that bit with the hand..." Donna said quizzically.

"That doesn't count! His whole face is different now! It's all-"

"I think we're missing the main issue here," The Doctor said flatly, an eyebrow creeping up.

"No kidding," Rose said, not meeting his gaze.

In truth, Rose was stunned by the Doctor's change. She'd seen him do it before, and knew it meant he'd nearly become a different person – the only thing still in tact was the memories. She was nervous and afraid to glance at him, scared to see what might be in his eyes. She was terrified to know if he still cared about her or not. She hardly dared to wonder what he might be thinking.

The Doctor slapped his hand against the TARDIS railing twice, gaining everyone's attention. "In case you don't mind, I'd like to talk here. We have a problem. The three of you _should not _be here. Martha should be at Torchwood, Rose should be in an alternate universe, and if Donna's here, then she should be..." he gestured frantically. "_Exploding_ right now!"

Donna's face fell. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"I aim to inspire," He leapt from the railing, landing in front of Donna, pulled out the sonic screwdriver and activated in her eye, all in one swift motion.

"Oi!" she protested, but the Doctor wasn't listening.

He studied the results of the sonic's scan quizzically. "Body temperature normal, average blood pressure, no sign of timey-wimey Doctor Donna explosions going on in your head..." As he put the screwdriver away, he leaned down and narrowed his eyes into hers. "What's the last thing you remember, Donna?"

She blinked. "In the TARDIS... before you, y'know, wiped my memory."

"Really? Nothing of the stuff afterward?"

"Well... I... It's hard to explain..."

He sighed. "I'm a Timelord, give me your best shot."

She stared at her hands in her lap, eyes narrowed. "I remember... living my life normally, and not knowing about you, but it's like a story, like someone told me about all that time, not like I actually lived it. Something like that."

He cocked his head to one side. "It makes no sense. Why aren't you dying right now?"

She shot him a withered look, but didn't put much effort into it. In truth, Donna felt tired and irritated, and the well-styled sweep of the Doctor's hair hovering above her face wasn't helping much. She could hardly begin to worry about how she'd gotten here. All her thoughts were focused on the fact that the Doctor she had known so well, the man she'd wanted to travel for the rest of her life with, was now a completely different person. It wasn't just his appearance – his personality was ever so slightly changed. He seemed more childish to her now... more easily excited. She didn't know how he could expect her to just... accept the change.

He leaned back, out of Donna's face and placed his hands against the railing behind him, shaking his head. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted as the TARDIS doors flew open.

Amy Pond shoved the three suitcases she had further into the crook of her arm and exclaimed, "Right, that's all, me and Rory just had to grab some-" she stopped as she looked up and saw the scene in front of her.

There was a stiff moment of silence.

Amy was, at this point, well-prepared for unpredictable moments such as these, so she dumped the suitcases into the unwilling arms of Rory behind her, and strode forward with a false swagger. "Right, who's this lot then?"

Several different emotions flickered across the Doctor's face before he settled on "vague irritation." "They're just some old friends of mine who seem to have-"

"Ah, are these the ones you talk about every now and then?" She crossed the few feet left to stand before the three companions. She chose at random Martha and studied her curiously. "Are you Martha? You look like a Martha."

Martha, who had found it best to avoid talking up until this point, blinked several times before saying, "Er, yeah, who're you?"

Amy saluted dramatically and held out a hand to be shaken. "Amy Pond, at your service, and my lovely husband Ro- _Rorywhyareyoustilloutside_?"

Rory had expertly positioned himself so that he could see everything going on without being seen himself. He now realized the error of his ways, because, as sure as he was in love with Amy, he had been shoved into the spotlight for all to see. He poked his head through the TARDIS door, balancing the suitcases in his hands behind him. "Er- hello!"

Amy, still holding Martha's hand, clasped it in both hands and murmured, "He's a good guy, means well, a bit shy though..." She moved quickly across the room and to Rory's side, looping her arm in his and pulling him inside. Rory then proceeded to succeed in the rather impressive feat of not dropping any of the suitcases, tripping, or doing something else stupid – unfortunately, no one except him noticed.

The Doctor huffed and sat up. "Amy, Rory, this is Rose, Martha and Donna. The three of you, meet the two of them." He then sat back again, pressing a hand to his temple.

"Hello!" Rose said, giving a small, awkward wave.

Amy grinned. "Hiya! What are you guys doing here?"

The three of them exchanged glances. "We have no idea," Martha murmured.

Rory looked over Amy's shoulder. "Doctor? Care to elaborate?"

The Doctor walked slowly over to the five of them. "Well the two of you were outside getting clothing and... whatever else it is you got, I was inside the TARDIS as it began violently shaking and rocking and whatever other descriptive words people use for 'violent turbulence.' As I struggled to get things under control, I slid across the floor and hit my head on the railing, blacking out. When I came to, those three were passed out on my floor."

Amy glanced between the Doctor and the companions. "So... how did you get here?"

Donna shrugged. "No idea. Last thing I remember was making coffee at my mum's house. Then I ended up here with all my memories."

"Interesting," the Doctor said. "What about the two of you?" He gestured at Rose and Martha.

"I was in the alternate universe with the human Doctor. We were at Torchwood." Rose said slowly.

"I was at Torchwood too – but this universe." Martha supplied.

The Doctor turned and began pacing around the TARDIS console, turning back every time he ran into the five of them. "So basically, some unknown power has brought the three of you here, probably ripping a few holes in space in the process, and somehow managing to keep Donna from exploding while they're at it. Not to mention, they broke into the TARDIS, which shouldn't even be possible, and – as far as we know – they've done nothing else yet."

"More or less, yeah," Rose muttered.

"What were you two doing?" Martha asked Amy.

"Hmm? Oh, the TARDIS is parked outside my house right now. We were just doing some laundry and repacking." Amy explained with a wave of her hand.

"Apparently we missed a lot," Rory grumbled.

"Here's our next question," the Doctor prattled on. "If someone went to all the effort of getting you three here, then they must have set up some obstacles to keep us from just returning you home, right?"

The five of them exchanged wary glances. "Makes sense, yeah..." Rose said slowly.

"Now you all should know by now I don't like taking orders from others. I want to know what this mysterious force has set up against us. We don't really have the option of trying to take Rose home – alternate universe and all – and I don't want to try Donna, in case it ends up making her explode..."

He trailed off, and everyone involuntarily looked at Martha.

She looked around, and then at everyone else, and then groaned, hanging her head.

"Oh god..."

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><p>Next chapter coming... AT SOME POINT.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2 Turbulence

Chapter 2 here! Please give me feedback - I want to know if you think I'm portraying the characters right.

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><p>Martha was scared.<p>

She didn't like admitting it to herself when she was, because she knew the Doctor liked strong, brave people and ever since the time she'd spent with him, she'd wanted to stay strong and brave, in his memory. But now, standing in front of the slick glass doors to Torchwood, Martha was scared. She didn't know what to expect. It wasn't often the Doctor didn't know what was coming, and now, being presented with one of those moments, she was really upset that she was the guinea pig.

Still, she knew she was their only option. They had to find out what was going on.

Martha glanced behind her, wishing she could see the TARDIS for support, but the Doctor had told her he would place it one second out of sync with the rest of time, so they could watch her without being seen. She rubbed her neck nervously before looking back at the glass doors. "Just go to the last place you remember being," the Doctor had said.

_Making coffee,_ she thought. _It was about an hour ago, and I was in the meeting room making coffee._

She walked forward.

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><p>The atmosphere in the TARDIS was tense and anxious, and everyone was crowded around the main control board where the camera screen was. The Doctor, with some difficulty, was having it track Martha's progress through Torchwood. Every time she moved into a different room he had to reset the controls to lock onto the next room, and by the time he had done that she was usually further along in the building. After some irritation, turmoil, and managing to lose track of Martha completely, they finally locked onto her in the meeting room, standing in front of the coffee machine and looking lost.<p>

The moment they found her, the TARDIS went haywire.

The entire machine rocked suddenly and whined in protest to the sudden movement. The floor below them vibrated and shook like an earthquake, and the entire ship actually rotated on its axis, sending everyone rolling across the floor.

"_Oi!_" Donna howled. "_Get your bloody machine under control!_"

"Not my fault!" The Doctor screeched as the TARDIS flipped in the other direction and he struggled to stay upright.

The inside of the machine suddenly seemed to spin, and all of them were sent careening into the console. Amy and Donna were unfortunately the first to hit the console – head-first – and passed out on contact.

The Doctor yelled a noise somewhere between a _tsk _and a scream. "Don't let them knock into anything else! Could damage them severely!"

Rory had been the closest and managed to get his arms around Amy before the TARDIS spun in a new direction. Rose, however, had been on the other side of the console and couldn't reach Donna as easily. The machine spun around, wild and out of control, and Rose was hopeless in her quest. All of a sudden, the machine flipped almost vertically, and everyone fell back against the wall, which was now operating as the ground.

Luckily for Rose, Donna was positioned to fall almost directly into her arms, and she had her held safe. Less luckily, however, was that Rose was now flying towards the wall with no chance of escape. She smacked against it and blacked out.

The Doctor made a brave attempt to stand amid the chaos, only to be knocked to the floor as Rory's recently emancipated body tripped him. His head whacked the ground and he too passed out.

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><p>Donna was the first to come to. Upon seeing Rose's limp arms wrapped around her, she screeched, "Oi!", right into Rose's ear, waking her as well.<p>

"What happened?" Rose said with a start, looking around.

The TARDIS was in disarray. Nearly every loose object had moved to a different part of the area, and the mustard dispenser had exploded across half the console. Papers and alien objects, long forgotten amongst everything else, had surfaced on the ground, fallen from shelves or cabinets. A hissing trail of steam was rising from the machinery beneath the console, and Rose thought she could hear a suspicious squelching noise coming from upstairs.

Also, Martha was lying on the floor.

"Martha!" Donna yelped. "How did you get here?"

Martha groaned and raised her head, shaking it slowly as she looked around. "How did I get here?"

"That's what I asked!" Donna said in indignation.

Rory shot up from where he'd landed on the lower staircase, facing the wall. "Everyone out! The TARDIS is-"

He turned around.

"Oh."

"Yeah, you dolt, it's over. You passed out." Donna grumbled.

"No need to get angry," Rose said as she stood shakily. She picked her way across the room carefully, to Amy's inanimate form slumped against the railing. "Amy, wake up."

Amy raised her head and looked around until she locked on Rory. "Thanks for the protection, smart one."

"What-" he stammered. "But I did, I-"

The Doctor stood, swaying, from where he'd fallen beside the console. "Well that was exciting."

Rose risked a laugh. "That's one way to describe it."

"But the TARDIS is a mess," Martha pointed out.

The Doctor noted that Martha was there with a raise of his eyebrow, then muttered. "She can fix it herself. We'll have to leave for a while and she'll put everything back together. Come on, everyone out!"

Once outside, the Doctor locked the TARDIS doors and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. He scanned everyone's eyes in turn, including his own. "No concussions, that's good." He reached Martha.

"But I wasn't in there for all that mess, I didn't hit my head." She protested.

"Better safe than- Oh, that's interesting."

"What?" Martha asked, startled.

He looked up from his screwdriver and into her eyes. "I thought I saw... Nothing." Before she could reply, he added, "Martha, what's the last thing you remember?"

She blinked. "Sitting in the meeting room, waiting for something to happen."

The Doctor shook his head. "Fascinating. I really want to know how someone's pulling this off."

Donna rubbed her arms. It was slightly nippy out. "How long is the TARDIS going to take?"

He glanced at Donna, and without taking his eyes off her, sonicked the doors. "A good half hour left."

"Can we go inside somewhere then?"

He looked around. They were exactly where they'd been before, about fifty feet from Torchwood Institute. He sonicked the TARDIS again and it disappeared, one second out of sync with the rest of time. "Very well. I think there's a nice diner down the road."

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><p>Hope you're enjoying it!<p>

Also, just wondering what you guys think: Is it "Soniced", "Sonicked", or "Sonic'd"?


	3. Chapter 3 The Diner

Chapter 3! I'm honestly surprised at how fast I'm typing these. I think it's just because I have so much free time today. Don't expect it to always be like this.

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><p>Nine minutes later, the six of them were sitting inside a small, homey diner down the block from Torchwood, mainly keeping to themselves. Donna and Martha were sitting together at the front bar, nursing coffees, while Rory and Amy were curled up in a booth, sharing a basket of chips. Rose found herself sitting in front of the Doctor at a different booth, a basket of chips between them.<p>

She briefly wondered why she'd allowed herself to get into this position. It had been a long time since she'd last talked to the Doctor – not to mention he was a different person now. He himself didn't seem to notice her predicament. He was gazing out the window, a faraway expression on his face. Being only human, she found the moment painfully awkward and had to say something.

"So..." She instantly regretted speaking.

He turned away from the window and his gaze focused on her. For a moment he looked excited, almost happy, but then his face fell, like the life had been sucked from it. Rose resisted the urge to groan.

She should have known – he didn't care about her anymore. It had been too long since they had last spoke, he had changed too much – they were no longer compatible. He was still staring at her, looking almost depressed. _Does he have to be this extreme about it? I'm not daft._

"Rose Tyler," He mumbled softly, and looked back at the window. It took all her effort to stop herself from yelling at him. He didn't have to be so rude about it! She got the point now – he didn't love her anymore. Why did he have to-

_Wait a minute._

Rose looked into his eyes, really looked at them. _He's hiding something. I know it._

"What is it?" she asked, but he didn't answer. Whether he didn't want to or was too distracted, Rose didn't know.

_Maybe it's both._

Rose grabbed a chip and chewed it ruefully, deep in thought. _You're over-analyzing, Rose. He isn't hiding anything – you're just looking for any excuse for him to still love you._

Fuming, more angry at herself than the Doctor, Rose stood and walked over to Martha and Donna, knowing she needed to get away from him. The longer she was around him, the more she'd want to love him and the more trouble she'd be couldn't allow it.

Donna looked up from her coffee and ushered Rose over. "Hello love. Sick of him? He's being such a bore right now."

Rose smiled. Donna, although rather eccentric, always managed to cheer others up. She sat down between her and Martha. "Just wondering what you two were up to."

Martha grinned and raised her cup. "Coffee."

Donna shook her head in thought. "Possible life-threatening danger screwing around with us and the TARDIS, and he takes us to a bloody diner."

Rose laughed weakly, head still throbbing from the Doctor. "Better than an alleyway."

"I guess." She stole a glance at Rose. "You okay?"

"Yeah, you seem stressed." Martha added.

Rose ran a hand through her hair. "No, I'm fine."

Donna watched Rose for a moment longer, narrowing her eyes, then looked away. She saw Amy approaching, Rory's hand in hers. The two of them sat down and Amy sighed. "You ever wonder what he's thinking?"

Donna scoffed. "Only every second."

Amy laughed slightly. "Well, you have more experience than me, I suppose."

Martha frowned. "He seems... sad."

"I guess," Rose said. Donna thought she sounded wary.

"He's just sitting there, staring out the window," Rory shook his head. "It'll be the day when someone figures him out."

Almost on queue, the Doctor stood abruptly and walked over, heading straight to Donna. "Donna, what's the maximum amount of hypo-carbons one member of the Thagmus species can handle before death?"

"How the bloody hell am I supposed to know that?" she growled.

"Just as I thought," He crossed his arms, scrutinizing her. "You're not Doctor Donna anymore."

She blinked. That thought hadn't occurred to her. "Well, what does it matter?" She couldn't help but feel defensive after having her intelligence insulted.

"Well it's got to mean something," he said, tapping his foot in irritation. "Although I don't know what yet. What we do know is that it means this mysterious enemy either had a reason for not making – or couldn't make – you Doctor Donna when they sent you here."

"Good point," Martha said slowly. "But if they could, then why didn't they?"

"Maybe," he narrowed his eyes. "Doctor Donna would know something we don't."

"But what?" Rose asked.

Suddenly everyone was staring at Donna. She squirmed uncomfortably. "Well what are we going to do? You can't make me Doctor Donna, and even if you could, I'm not risking exploding!"

"True," the Doctor grumbled ruefully. "I'd say at this point it would be best to go to the Shadow Proclamation. Knowing them, they'd probably consider this kidnapping and have some rule against it. It could work in our favor."

"But it also... couldn't work in our favor," Amy guessed.

He grinned and winked at her. "That's the fun bit. Come on, the TARDIS should be done by now."

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><p>Really enjoying this right now! Please be sure to review :)<p> 


	4. Chapter 4 The Forest and the River

Chapter 4! Don't forget to leave your feedback guys!

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><p>The TARDIS, sure enough, had finished cleaning itself and looked good as new. Everything had been put back in its place and the mysterious squelching noise could no longer be heard.<p>

"Ah, good girl," the Doctor said proudly, patting the soft blue wood over the threshold. "Beautiful machine."

Donna and Martha exchanged a glance, both of them grinning.

The Doctor grandly ushered everyone in and entered last, giving the outside world a dark glance before shutting the door. "Right then," he turned to face the group, clapping his hands together and smiling broadly. "The Shadow Proclamation."

He leapt down the stairs and across the room, flying to the other side of the console and gripping a lever at random to steady himself. He flicked three different dials to the right, pressed a red button, and typed frantically into an alien keyboard before throwing forward a huge, TARDIS blue switch in front of him.

The familiar grind of the TARDIS' breaks started up and he looked over the middle of the console to the five companions in the room. "Right, we're o-"

He was cut off as chaos ensued.

The TARDIS rejected the Doctor's commands and turned suddenly, spinning wildly through time and space and sending the passengers into a frenzy.

Donna, holding onto the railing to stay upright, glared at the Doctor and yelled, "Now I _know_ this one's your fault!"

"No really, this time it's the TARDIS!" He called as he pressed several different buttons and pulled a few levers dangling above him. The TARDIS resisted all his attempts to get it under control.

They whizzed through space, a blur in the sky, rocketing past planets and through holes in space. All of a sudden the TARDIS found its goal and stopped suddenly, causing everyone inside to fall over.

"Oof," Martha grunted, getting up. "What was that?"

The Doctor leaned on the console as he stood up, barely missing the button that would have teleported them to the middle of a Dalek army five trillion miles away by inches. "Apparently the TARDIS doesn't want to go to the Shadow Proclamation today."

They all looked at the door.

"Doctor," Amy said softly. "Remember what Idris said?"

"'I always take you where you need to be'," Rory quoted quietly.

The Doctor looked around the room, wild eyed. "Then we better see what's outside."

Everyone got outside, the Doctor last, a red fez on his head.

Rose blinked. "Where did you-"

"Don't ask," Amy grumbled. The Doctor smiled.

Outside, three feet from the TARDIS doors, was the beginning of a forest. The trees looked like Earth ones, but thicker and lusher, roots sprawling and intermingling on the ground, branches twisted in wild shapes high above their heads. It looked like fall – the remaining leaves were only barely gripping the trees, and most were dead and crinkled on the ground. Behind the TARDIS lay an empty clay wasteland.

The Doctor sniffed. "Normal air," He pulled out his screwdriver and scanned the sky above him. "I think this is a moon." He scanned the clay earth beneath them. "Yes, definitely a moon. Can't say where though."

"Why did the TARDIS send us to a moon?" Donna muttered.

"Cool moon though," Amy commented. "It has its own forest."

The Doctor subconsciously adjusted his fez. "Well I'd say the best way to figure things out would be to explore. Come on."

They entered the forest, which turned out to be thicker and more exotic than they'd first thought. They had to stick close together to avoid getting split up in the tightly packed trees. Rory managed to lose them more than once, and had to run to catch up, dead-afraid of getting forgotten and left behind in the maze of trees.

Eventually they stopped. "Funny," the Doctor said. "By now we should have ran into something. So why did the TARDIS-"

He was cut off as a gunshot rang out through the trees.

The Doctor's fez fell from his head, a steaming, blackened hole burning in its center. Everyone looked up in shock.

River Song studied the group from behind the smoking barrel of her gun. "I thought I told you not to wear that thing, Sweetie."

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><p>AHAHAHA River.<p>

It appears that my chapters are slowly getting shorter. I'll try to fix that. Anyway, leave your comments and what not. I hope you're enjoying it.


	5. Chapter 5 Love Reunited

Here's chapter 5! Got it up just before bed. ^.^

Expect this to be the average speed at which I get out chapters - one a day, at most. I'm really liking the way the story's going and I hope I keep it up and don't loose interest. Hope you guys are enjoying it too!

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><p>River grinned wildly. "Cat got your tongue?" She visually scanned the group in front of her, a look of mild interest pasted on her face. "This is the biggest group I've seen you have yet, Doctor."<p>

"River?" he exclaimed. "_That's _what the TARDIS was taking us here for?"

"Don't sound so disappointed!" She laughed, returning her gun to its holster with a flourish.

"Hello again, River," Donna said, somewhat uncertainly.

River's smile broadened. "Good to see you, Donna."

"What?" The Doctor shook his head. "But you haven't met her yet."

She raised an eyebrow. "You mean I meet her again?"

"So you _do_ see her later?"

The eyebrow crept higher. "Spoilers." She diverted her attention to Amy and Rory. "Hello again, you two."

Amy smiled and opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Martha. "Doctor? You want to introduce us?"

He blinked. "Right. River Song, meet Martha Jones and-" he hesitated for a fraction of a second. "- Rose Tyler."

River smiled, walking forward to the group. "Nice to meet you. Now, who wants to explain what's going on?"

"I think you should explain first." Amy inserted. "What exactly are you doing in a forest? On a moon?"

She rolled her eyes casually, still smiling. "Transfer prison. On a _moon_, for god's sake. These wardens just get crazier and crazier."

"And so you broke out because...?" Rory asked.

She brushed back her hair and averted her eyes from the Doctor's gaze. "Let's just say I like keeping tabs on the TARDIS. I noticed there was a significant increase in lifeforms on board, so I just wanted to investigate."

"In other words you didn't want to miss the action?" Donna grumbled.

River laughed out loud. "Honestly, I'm getting too easy to figure out!" She turned to the Doctor. "So what's with all the new friends?"

"Old friends," he corrected with a small smile. "And I suggest we get back to the TARDIS to talk. After all, you did just break out and I'm sure the woods are being scoured to find you."

She nodded in agreement. "They never learn, do they?"

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><p>When River had been given the details of the situation, she let loose a long, low whistle. "The things you put yourself in, Doctor."<p>

"It's not my fault!" he stammered.

"True. This has got to be one impressive enemy though, being able to control your companions like that. Have you considered what they might have done to Amy and Rory?"

Rory started in surprise. He was certain no one had considered that.

"Yes, I thought about that." The Doctor said.

Rory sighed softly.

"I'm assuming you haven't tested it though," River said, almost boredly.

"No." he admitted. "But we tried sending Martha home."

"It didn't work too well," Martha added.

Everyone took turns filling River in on what had happened with Martha.

She _tsked_ softly, shaking her head. "Like I said – really powerful enemy."

"Any ideas?" Amy asked.

She toyed casually with one of the buttons on the console. "Not really, no. But – if you don't mind, Doctor – I'd like to stick around. Seems worthwhile to find out what's going on."

He shrugged placidly. "I don't mind. We were about to head over to the Shadow Proc-"

"Oh god no," she intervened. "That place has gone to the dogs recently. You're not getting any help from them."

"I knew you were useful for something, River," Amy joked with a wink.

River smiled at her and laughed slightly, fingering some of the TARDIS controls.

"Any ideas on where we should go, then?" Donna asked.

She made a face, thinking. "Earth? Seems to be where all the trouble is stemming from. Makes sense to stay around there."

"I suppose," the Doctor said, furrowing his brow. "I don't like any of this, though. Just look at Donna – she hasn't exploded yet. No one should be able to control her like that."

"Yeah. That's why we have to stop them," River said grimly.

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><p>As the grinding of the TARDIS' breaks began to be heard, Rose hugged her knees tightly and looked away from everyone else. She was sitting on the ground by the console a few feet away from the group, silently brooding. She felt slightly guilty and selfish for not participating in the conversation, but she didn't care and anyways, no one seemed to be missing her. With such a larger group, it was easy to get ignored.<p>

She was an idiot. A complete, genuine idiot. She should have known, should have been able to guess it. It was so obvious from the way he'd been treating her. She was a fool for not guessing it earlier.

Rose had seen the way he'd looked at River. He'd seen how easily he'd trusted her, how he'd answered all of her questions and even asked for her advice. She'd seen the way River had acted around him, all relaxed, calm and flirtatious, never missing a beat, never caught off guard. How she acted like the leader around him, the dominant one. How he didn't mind when she took control.

She knew that if she tried to take control the Doctor wouldn't have let her. He wouldn't have trusted her with the TARDIS. He wouldn't have let her play with the controls the way River had, all calm and worry-free, almost like she herself knew how to fly it.

She probably did.

Rose grimaced and cringed inwardly at how stupid and blind she'd been. The Doctor had moved on – he had no interest in her anymore. She was useless, and had no reason to be here. He didn't love her, plain and simple. He no longer cared about her – he had someone new to worry about. He had a new love, a new body, new friends, a new screwdriver – hell, he even had a new TARDIS.

He had moved on. But she couldn't.

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><p>Poor Rose :(<p>

On a lighter note, River is REALLY fun to write with. Also, I've noticed the lack of lines I've been giving Martha. It just turns out that she's a really hard character to get to talk. She's good at slipping into the shadows. For all you Martha friends, I'm planning on giving her something more at some point.

Keep reading, and leave me some reviews!


	6. Chapter 6 The Rules

Chapter 6 up! Really excited about the way this story is going. Keep leaving those reviews, guys!

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><p>"Looks like this is turning into our base," Donna commented as they entered the diner again.<p>

River sat down in a booth and scooted back to make room for the Doctor. "Well that's no good," she said. "Stick around here long and we'll end up accidentally destroying the place."

"We can worry about that later. Right now we need to find out what's going on," the Doctor said as everyone else sat down.

"I have a theory," Rory said.

"Maybe we should find out our enemy's purpose first," Martha suggested. "That will make how they're doing it easier to guess."

"Sure it will," Rose grumbled. "Except that we have no leads and no way of guessing who our enemy _is_, let alone their purpose."

"I have a theory," Rory stated.

"We _do_ know that they're really powerful, Rose," Amy countered. "Which limits our options a lot more than you'd think."

"Can't be angels," River said, thinking. "They're clever, but not near as organized enough for this."

"Damn, that was my theory," Rory muttered, his comment going unnoticed by the others.

Donna narrowed her eyes. "It's not necessarily a group. Could be just one person."

"Well if it is, that limits our options even further," Martha said. "We don't know a lot of enemies who could pull this off on their own."

Rose was slumped in a chair facing the booth that everyone else had piled into, and although her body language didn't change, she raised an eyebrow. "It could be two enemies, teaming up."

Amy _tsked _softly. "The possibilities are endless."

"Yeah, good point," Rory said. "It could be anything in the galaxy. It might be something we've never faced before."

River opened her mouth to speak, but fell silent as the Doctor stood suddenly. "I wonder," he said.

The Doctor had been sitting in between River and Martha, but now he made a show of leaping up from between them, swinging over and landing on the booth chair behind everyone. "Something's off here," he continued as he got off the chair and stood between the seated Rose and Martha. "When we tried to send Martha home, she was sent back to the TARDIS. But we're sitting here now in a diner and nothing's happening. What are the rules here? How far can you three go?"

He jumped over Rose's feet and to the door of the diner, stopping only for a second to call behind his shoulder, "Rose, Donna, come with me."

Donna was up and following him instantly. Rose hesitated for a fraction of a second before following as well.

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><p>The Doctor ran for about a minute, going until the diner was just out of sight over a hill, about half a mile from the tall and glittering metal spire that was Torchwood. Donna and Rose caught up with him quickly. "What exactly was the point of that?" Donna asked as she caught her breath.<p>

He held up a finger to say "wait" and offered no further explanation.

Sure enough, around two minutes later, River, Amy and Rory could be seen running over the crest of the hill and to the waiting Doctor.

"What happened?" Rose asked. "Where's Mar-"

"She disappeared!" Rory gasped.

"What? What do you mean?" Donna said, raising an eyebrow.

"We were sitting in the diner," River huffed. "Looking out the window to see what you three were up to. When we looked back, Martha wasn't there."

"Thought as much," the Doctor said, beaming proudly. "Come on everyone."

He set off running again. "All the bloody running!" Rory yelled. "Do you ever stop to explain yourself?" Nevertheless, he followed everyone else down the hill.

The Doctor led them back to the TARDIS and threw open the doors. "Oh clever," he murmured. "Very, _very_ clever indeed."

Lying on the floor in front of the TARDIS console was a rather dumfounded-looking Martha.

"How did I get here?" she asked.

"Well that explains one mystery," the Doctor said as everyone walked inside.

"Mind explaining it to us, the less-intelligent ones?" Amy asked irritably.

"I thought it was obvious. We've now learned the rules of this teleporting... _thing_ our enemy has set up."

"Oh," River said slowly. "I think I see."

"What?" Donna said, exasperated.

"The teleport link is connected to _me_," the Doctor explained. "Not the TARDIS. If you, Rose or Martha go a certain distance from me, you instantly get sent to the TARDIS."

"But that's not the only thing you've figured out, is it?" River asked.

"No, it's not. Through that little experiment I learned that the teleport doesn't work if someone's looking at the target, or can see the place they'll be teleported to. That also explains the TARDIS' turbulence."

"What does turbulence have to do with teleporting?" Donna asked.

"Our enemies are using the turbulence as a sort of distraction." River said. "That's why when you all passed out, Martha was here when you woke up – you weren't conscious to see her get sent here."

"Am I always the guinea pig?" Martha asked no one in particular.

"And that's also why Martha disappeared when you all weren't looking?" Rose clarified.

"Exactly," the Doctor said. "So, now we know the rules." He looked up to the TARDIS ceiling and shouted, "What comes next, mysterious enemy? What's our next puzzle?"

Although no one was really expecting an answer, everyone found themselves holding their breath. As expected, however, no reply came. The Doctor glanced at everyone in the room. "I'll get them yet."

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><p>Rory is REALLY fun to mess with. ^.^ Hope you like it so far.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7 What Happens at Night

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS CHAPTER. It's definitely my favorite that I've written so far. Please enjoy it and please review!

Also, to all of you who have given me reviews so far, THANKS! I really appreciate it. A special thanks to Marteia Lucas - Your review made me smile.

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><p>The TARDIS is very big, often a lot bigger than you'd expect. Most people who had ever traveled with the Doctor had seen five floors at most – the console room, two above the console room and two below. Most tried not to think about how much of the ship they were really missing out on, mainly because the Doctor could tell a good horror story or two about the stuff trapped inside, but also because the sheer size of it, all jammed inside one little blue box, was enough to make any man go insane. Also, at night, the impossibility of the TARDIS was increased – as well as its ability to drive one mad – because of the dark and strange things hidden on board that liked to cause havoc in the moonlit hours. People like River, however, gave no care or worry to their sanity and often wondered what else was in the TARDIS – especially at night.<p>

Traveling in the opposite time line as the Doctor made it near impossible for River to have any downtime in the TARDIS, and subsequently hadn't seen as much of the machine as she had hoped. Still, she held the unofficial record for the companion who had seen the most of the TARDIS – ten floors, to be exact.

She'd asked the Doctor enough questions to know that the TARDIS consisted (currently) of a total of 45 floors, the main console room directly in the middle – floor 23. She knew she'd seen floors 18 through 28, and was currently lying in an unexpectedly soft bed on floor 25. Also, she couldn't sleep.

River had taught herself how to be extremely cautious when alone in dark rooms at night, mainly because this was a useful skill to have when breaking out of prisons. Consequently, she was instinctively throwing out her senses and could hear the distinct sound of Rose breathing in a bed about five feet away. They were the only ones in the room – Donna and Martha were on floor 24, Amy and Rory on floor 22, and the Doctor... River knew he was wherever he wanted to be at the current moment.

River had also taught herself how to measure the pressure and severity of someone's breathing, and therefore knew that Rose was in no way asleep. Being unable to close her own eyes, and subsequently bored, River did the only thing she knew best, which was to start talking.

"Can't sleep either?"

Rose started in surprise. She hadn't expected River to be awake as well. She hesitated for a second before saying, "No, I can't. What's keeping you up?"

"Same as you."

This threw Rose off her guard – she decided to take it as a joke and humor River. "What's keeping me up, then?"

"The Doctor."

Rose blinked in the darkness, stunned. "N-No," she managed. "I'm not..."

River's tinkling laugh threaded across the room. "I'm not threatened or anything, if that's what you're thinking."

She was quiet for a moment. "What gave me away?"

"I've seen the way you look at him, honey. I've seen how scared and nervous you are, how you want him to return your looks and at the same time you're dead scared of the idea. How guilty you feel after I say something to him and he responds the way you want him to respond to you."

Rose swallowed. "I'm that obvious?"

She laughed. "No. I've just had a lot of practice reading people."

"I'm sorry," Rose muttered.

"Don't be." There was a pause. "So, did he like you back? Or were you another Martha?"

Rose couldn't keep herself from laughing. "Oh come on, now how did you know about that?"

"The Doctor tells me everything." She was quiet for a moment. "Or at least he will."

"What do you mean?"

River explained how she was moving in the opposite time line as the Doctor.

Rose sighed through her teeth. "Look at us. Me, stranded in my alternate universe and you heading towards a more and more ignorant Doctor with every second."

River laughed softly. "So come on then, did he like you back?"

Rose smiled nostalgically in the darkness. "Unless I have no skill whatsoever at reading men, then yeah, he really did."

"He's a strange one, our Doctor," River murmured quietly. "I wouldn't be surprised if he still did."

"Now come on, stop trying to get my hopes up!" Rose laughed weakly, the noise trapped in her throat.

There was a pause. "Like I said, I'm good at reading people. That includes Timelords. And I've seen something in his eyes, Rose, and I'm not saying I don't like it, but it troubles me, because it's directed at you, and I don't think it's good."

"What, you think he still has feelings for me?"

"Yes," She said slowly. "But I think there's something else, too. I don't know what."

Rose frowned, then remembered River couldn't see her and said, "I hope you're wrong then. I'd rather he didn't like me than he did like me just because I was in danger."

"Well put," Rose could hear the smile in River's voice. "But sometimes the danger's worth it."

"More often than not, huh?" she murmured back, grinning, her worries pushed away by River's calm and comfortable demeanor.

River sighed. "Wonder what he's doing right now?"

"You know it."

They were both quiet, and Rose thought that River had fallen asleep before her voice crept across the room, dangerously low. "You want to go find out?"

Rose thought to herself that she probably wouldn't be here much longer after the Doctor straightened all this out, and the chances of her getting back were painfully low, so she figured she might as well enjoy herself while she was here. "Let's do it."

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><p>The TARDIS had gone into nighttime mode and was dimly lit, the symmetrically round orbs humming softly as they let off a faint golden glow. Rose could see the solid brown ground beneath her feet, trapped in the orbs' hue, but everything above her head was shrouded in darkness. The machine was deathly quiet but for the occasional alien moan coming from above or below.<p>

She shivered instinctively as a high-pitched, feral whine echoed across the deck, its source sounding terrifyingly close. River placed a comforting hand, soft as a feather, on her back.

"I remember that fella," she hissed lowly. "Essence of moon – an airborne disease that was spreading across a planet and turning the population into wolves. Don't worry, he's safely contained on floor 27."

"Airborne disease, really comforting," she murmured in reply, but River squeezed her shoulder and they both knew that the other was smiling in the dark.

They headed down a spiraling staircase, the dim lighting of the TARDIS showing only glimpses of the way they were headed. As they walked, River spoke in a hushed tone.

"I'd figure he's on floor 23, but not in the console room. There's a few off passages on that floor and one of them leads to a sort of office. I remember – in his future – I could always find him there, troubling over something. He doesn't like visiting most of the stuff on board, so he's either there or sleeping."

As she talked, Rose felt her heart sink further. River seemed to know everything about the Doctor, and his ship. She was no match for her. There was no contest – River was made for the Doctor.

"Come on, just this way," she continued. "And stop thinking about how useless you are, because I'm sure he appreciates you."

"How did you-" Rose blinked, stunned.

In the darkness, she saw River wink. "Your body language changed. Nothing gets past me."

Rose, slightly humbled, continued to follow River onto a metal catwalk above the console room. They proceeded to the farthest end of the catwalk, to a door set into the wall that Rose had never noticed before. River, bringing a finger to her lips and smiling, pushed open the already-unlocked door. It slid open on well-oiled hinges.

The door revealed a short, unlit hallway that gave a tempting view of a messy-looking room lit by an orange-y glow. The two of them stalked silently forward on their toes and peeked around the corner to see the Doctor leaned back in a chair, staring up into a monitor set into the wall. He wore a troubled expression and was running a hand through his hair.

River and Rose exchanged a glance. The Doctor never ran a hand through his hair.

Rose looked up at the monitor. Strange, swirling emblems decorated it, surrounding a satellite-style image of what looked like a galaxy. A red light was blinking rhythmically at the bottom of the monitor, beeping occasionally.

_It's in Gallifreyan, _River mouthed to her.

Rose gave her a face that meant, _Damn, I want to know what's bothering him_, and River nodded in agreement. Rose thumbed back towards the exit, and they quickly left.

"Wonder what was on the screen," River murmured thoughtfully.

"Yeah, has to be big to make him look like that," Rose grumbled.

She nodded and looked back at the way they had come. "That's enough adventuring for one night, I think. As much as I'd love to poke around the TARDIS, now isn't the time."

"Yeah. Come on."

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><p>As Rose settled back into her bed, she found herself deeply troubled by what she'd seen the Doctor doing. It seemed really important to her, and the galaxy on the screen had been really familiar, but she just couldn't place it. She fell asleep, tired and worried, to the sound of River's rhythmic breathing.<p>

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><p>Thanks for reading! More coming soon!<p> 


	8. Chapter 8 The Moon of Stagma

Yay! Chapter 8! I almost didn't get this one up tonight so I'm really happy.

In other news, I just bought a sonic screwdriver. Again, really happy.

And, just to add to my happiness, all of you have been giving me fantastic reviews that are really making my day. All of you are super-pleased with the pace at which I'm posting chapters, and I hope I can keep it up.

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><p>The Doctor tapped the tip of his screwdriver against the TARDIS console thoughtfully as he transferred a skeptical look between the companions on board who were patiently waiting for him to say something.<p>

"We need a heat source," he finally murmured, sitting back in his chair.

Donna shrugged. "Yeah, cause heat sources solve everything. We all knew that."

"No really," he said, sitting up again. "I need a heat source – a really, really _big_ heat source."

"And what are you going to do with it?" Amy said, giving him a withering look.

"I was looking into our problem last night,-" Rose and River shared a look. "-And I figured out that, with a really big, really hot heat source, the TARDIS might be able to track the signal causing us all this trouble."

"_Might_?" Donna clarified. "As in, 'either that, or we end up mucking about on some really hot planet for no reason'?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Planet, sure, but I was thinking more underground."

Rory made a face. "We already did underground. Remember? The lizard people? I'm not doing underground again."

"I'm for it," Amy said, her tone bordering on disinterest.

"Underground on a hot planet, attempting to track the signal that's brought your old companions here?" River clapped her hands together. "Where did you have in mind?"

"Wait a minute, hold on," Martha said. "How exactly does heat help the TARDIS?"

The Doctor's shoulders sagged. "It's obvious, isn't it? The TARDIS transfers the heat into energy, which it then uses to boost its power."

Rose raised and eyebrow. "That actually made sense."

"Another alien planet, huh?" Donna said. "Alright. What's it this time?"

He rubbed his hands together before placing them conspiratorially on the console's keyboard. As he rattled off each option, he punched different coordinates into the keyboard, making each one pop up on the console screen. "We could go to the fire mines of Haargiss, the steam caverns of Galbus 9, the below-ground volcano in Thagminn."

He gave everyone a wild glance, raising an eyebrow. "Or, I could just put in the demand for a heated, underground planet, and let the TARDIS pick randomly. All I need to do is-"

"Wait, what?" Martha said, alarmed.

"-This." The Doctor pressed his pointer finger into one dark blue button on the console and suddenly the whole machine went haywire, rocking back and forth on its randomized journey and making its passengers grip onto the rails to stay standing.

The erratic travel went on for about a minute before the machine finally settled, the gears grinding into silence.

"Lovely," The Doctor said with a smile as he got up and walked to the entrance, patting the worn wooden door. "Where did you take us this time, old girl?"

He opened it.

It took a quick moment for everyone to see through the haze of smoke outside. Finally it parted to reveal a hard, red ground, looking beaten and flat. A few dark rocks dotted the landscape, colored exactly the same shape, and thick, blood red stalactites hung from the craggy red ceiling. About 100 feet away, the ground dropped off abruptly into an abyss – they could see that it did the same thing in a few other places farther off.

The Doctor leaned down and pressed his finger into the thick red dust, licking it. "Ah!" He said, discovery lighting his eyes. "The nineteenth moon of Stagma! Lovely place. We're sure to get some great heat here."

Donna, stepping hesitantly out of the TARDIS, looked up at the ceiling. "How far down are we?"

He pointed the sonic at the roof and activated it, reading the results. "A good 3 million feet. No big deal."

"3 million...?" Rory stammered.

He smiled. "The moons of Stagma are very wide."

"No one's here." Rose commented.

The Doctor shrugged. "The surface of the moon is inhabitable, and these caverns are naturally made, so no one has ever really been on this planet."

Martha rubbed her arms nervously. "It's kind of weird, knowing you're not supposed to be here."

"You'd think you'd get used to it, hanging around him," Amy joked lightly.

"Come on, everyone," The Doctor said, and they walked out onto the hard, red soil.

He led them across the firm, steady-feeling ground and directly to the edge of the abyss. He scanned it, then continued on to the next, scanning it as well. He moved on to the third one and did the same. There were no other drop-offs in the nearby area, so they began to head back. As they walked past the second abyss, the Doctor stopped suddenly.

"What?" River asked.

He gave no answer – instead, without looking it's way or moving any other muscle but those in his arm, he raised his screwdriver and scanned the abyss again. "Hmm."

"_What_?" Donna repeated River's question irritably.

"I'm sure you all know that, as a rule, it's rather smart to avoid an abyss," He said slowly. "But I suggest to you that you try and avoid this one more than all the others." He continued walking, and the others followed, somewhat confused.

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><p>Once they returned to the TARDIS, the Doctor began punching keys, twisting knobs and tapping buttons and a terrifying pace, keeping it up for a few minutes before relaxing and staring into the glow of the console screen. He frowned.<p>

"What's wrong?" River asked.

"It's going to take a good three days for the TARDIS to attempt to pick up the signal. It will have to store massive amounts of energy to do it."

Amy sighed. "Three days in this place? Alright, not like I have much choice."

"What are we going to do all that time?" Rory asked, unaccustomed to the thought of downtime in the TARDIS.

"Anything you want to!" The Doctor said, gesturing grandly. He turned to walk deeper into the TARDIS, then stopped, looking back at them. "But like I said – avoid that abyss."

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><p>:)<p>

Also, I had one review hoping for more Donna drama, as well as some Pond stuff. If I include that kind of thing (which I'm considering) it will happen in the chapters coming up. The next few chapters are going to scoot away from the plot a bit and focus mainly on drama/love.

It's pretty late, so sorry if this chapter sounded like crap.


	9. Chapter 9 Heated Tempers

Here we go, chapter 9! It's looking really good. Also, anyone know how you're supposed to go about posting this stuff on Deviantart? For the life of me, I can't figure that website out.

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><p>"Ix-nay on the abyss-ay." Amy said slowly. "I can handle it. Come on, Rory."<p>

Rory followed his love out of the TARDIS willingly, giving a nervous glance at the imposing cave ceiling as they went. "Why doesn't it just collapse?"

"Don't remind me, Rory!" Amy warned in a sing-song voice.

He fell silent as they walked, steering clear of all three of the abysses and heading deeper into the impressive cave. Even Rory, who was tired and secretly wanted to go home, had to appreciate the beauty of the cavern. It had to be at least fifty feet tall and impossibly wide – he couldn't see any of the cave's sides, and couldn't even begin to guess it's size.

Amy seemed genuinely distracted – her eyes were on the featureless red ground and a worried expression was on her face. "What is it?" Rory asked.

She stopped walking and looked at him. "I thought it was obvious. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with Martha and everyone. Don't you want to help?"

"Well, sure..." he made a face. "But this doesn't really involve us, Amy. Y'know... these are the Doctor's past companions. We don't know what they've seen, what they've done... We don't even know what sort of an effect they might have had on the Doctor. We shouldn't intrude."

She raised an eyebrow. "Well we're already here, we might as well be useful."

He scratched his back, looking away. "I don't know. There seems to be a lot of... I don't know, tension flying around."

"_Sure_, Rory," Amy said, scoffing. "They've traveled with the _Doctor_. There's bound to be some stuff flying around."

He frowned and was about to protest when Amy continued talking. "So what do you think brought them here?"

"I don't know. There's lots of aliens out there. Could be anything."

Her shoulders sagged and she glared at him. "If you're not going to help then just go. I'll work on it myself." Before he could say anything, she turned and stalked deeper into the cave.

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><p>"Scary stalactites," Donna commented, craning her neck to stare at the jagged red tips.<p>

Martha rubbed her hands together, finding herself unnaturally cold in the humid cavern. After the Doctor's warning to avoid the middle abyss, she'd felt a strange chill, like there was something really wrong about this place. She didn't want to mention it – it seemed silly and unimportant. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling of foreboding hovering around her.

"Martha?" Rose asked, raising an eyebrow. "You in there?"

"Hmm? Yeah," She said, shaking her head.

"You sure?" Donna asked slowly. "You look a bit tired."

"Must be the heat getting to me," she said, glancing back at the TARDIS a few feet away. "Maybe I'll go rest."

"Good idea," Rose said.

"We'll be fine," Donna added at Martha's hesitant look. "Here comes that Rory boy."

As Martha walked off, Rory stalked over, hardly able to contain his stress. "You look off," Donna said.

Rory huffed, something he tried to avoid doing. "Some stress with Amy, I'm fine."

"Now come on," Donna tried and failed to keep the humor out of her voice. "You can talk to me and Rose, we don't bite."

He hesitated for a second. "No really, don't worry about me."

Rose sighed. "Come on! She rub you the wrong way? Who said what? We just want to help."

Donna looped a hand through Rory's reluctant arm. "You've been rather quiet this whole time. What's Amy done?"

He flushed as red as the rocks around him. "Amy's done nothing! She's fine!" He pulled his arm out from Donna's grasp. "You don't need to worry."

Rose raised an eyebrow.

Donna blinked. "Alright, don't get rubbed the wrong way. I just want to help."

Rory looked sorry, but he didn't say anything. Before anyone else could stop him, he turned and walked back to the TARDIS.

"Wonder what's wrong with him," Rose said softly.

"Poor guy," Donna shook her head. "That Amy girl does seem a bit cold to me."

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><p>River shivered in glee at the unnerving feeling of staring into an abyss.<p>

"Smoky," she commented to herself, raising an eyebrow. "You could choke in there."

She got up from where she'd been lying in the dust and backed away from the edge, ever mindful to keep from falling. As interesting as a bottomless pit was, she would prefer to stay alive, and anyways she didn't have anything with her that she could use to learn more about the pit. Only her eyes and mind.

She glanced – somewhat guiltily – at the middle chasm across the room. The Doctor had warned them to steer clear, but this only made her wonder what was so dangerous about it. In fact, she was about to walk over and see for herself when Amy came up behind her.

"Hello River."

She turned, smiling. "Hello love. You look troubled."

She shrugged, tossing her red hair. "Just wondering if I could figure out what's going on."

River smiled appreciatively. "Aren't we all?"

"Yeah, I guess." Amy looked down.

"Sure," she said, clapping her hands together. "But why don't we talk about what's _really_ wrong with you first?"

Amy sighed, rolling her eyes. "Nothing gets past you. It's just Rory – he seems so... anti-social lately."

River laughed, but then gave Amy a firm look. "I think he has a lot on his mind. You really should talk to him."

She blinked. "Yeah, maybe I will. He does seem distracted."

River glanced at the abyss a few feet away from them. "Not hard in this place."

Amy smiled. "No. So what were you doing here?"

"Oh, just looking around. Got to see what's going on myself. A word of advice, Amy – don't always take the Doctor's word for something."

She raised her eyebrows. "I won't. I think I'm going to head back to the TARDIS. Don't do anything stupid."

"Not planning on it!" River called after her retreating form. She took a glance at the middle abyss and said to herself, "Not planning it at all..."

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><p>I feel like I need to explain myself with this one.<p>

I've recently oncovered a huge mass of pent-up anger in Rory's character. He tends to take a lot of hits, and he's turned into a goldmine of angst which he expresses just about everytime someone takes a pull at Amy. I really hope to develop this side of him.

Also, before writing this bit I had a long chat with Martha. A lot of people have been asking why Martha has said close to nothing throughout the entire story. The main reason for this was because she just refused to work with me. Now that I've talked to her, I like the way she's going.


	10. Chapter 10 Old Worries

CHAPTER TEN!

As a celebration for having gotten this far, I now name this chapter a NO-LURKER CHAPTER! Post those reviews! Do it!

And, as always, enjoy :)

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><p>Martha plucked absentmindedly at a loose thread on her comforter on her bed on the 24th floor of the TARDIS. Her head was spinning horribly, and she really had begun to believe that the heat was making her sick, and not some weird and mysterious alien phenomenon. She fell back on the bed, pressing her hands to her temple. She applied some pressure to find that it eased the pain. Maybe if she just pressed against her head, she could get the pain to go away. All she had to do was press...<p>

She heard a door slam and removed her hands, allowing the headache to come back stronger than ever. Groaning, she stood, knowing she should probably find what the source of the slamming was – as far as she knew, she was the only one on this floor.

As Martha opened the door to the room she and Donna shared, she heard someone grumbling on the other side of the corridor. Hesitant, but determined, she walked forward to see Rory, glaring up at the ceiling and muttering to himself.

"Lost?" She asked.

He turned, stunned at being caught, and took a step back sheepishly. "Er, yeah, a bit."

"Where were you headed?" Martha hoped to be helpful, despite not knowing her way around the TARDIS very well either.

He looked away. "Nowhere, really. I was just walking and didn't pay attention."

She smiled. "Ah that's alright then. I'm pretty sure there's some stairs over there, and if you take them down you should end up in the console room."

"Right then," he nodded.

They stood there awkwardly for a moment.

"Yes, well..." Martha finally said. "I think..."

"Yeah," Rory murmured. "I'll just..."

"Go back..."

"Take the stairs..."

Martha watched him walk away, but then called, "Wait!"

He turned back, looking uncertain. "Yeah?"

"You seem sort of troubled," she said slowly. "Can I help?"

Rory blinked. "I um, well..." He blinked again. "It's Amy, see. We had a little bit of a row."

"A little bit of one?"

He shrugged. "It was nothing extreme. She just seems really mad at me lately."

Martha softened. "She's probably stressed. There's been a lot going on lately, what with us showing up, and I'm sure she doesn't like it." Martha bit her lip and looked away. "I'll admit that, when I was traveling with the Doctor, I got so upset every time he mentioned Rose! I was so certain that he didn't care for me – every second was about her. I see now that I was overreacting. He was just worried about what was happening to her, and I was just... being silly."

Rory smiled slightly. "Good to know we're not the only ones with all the drama."

"If I can ask," she prayed that she wasn't being nosy. "What worries you so much about her?"

He looked down, a sad expression on his face. "She just always seems so focused on the Doctor. I really wonder if she still loves me or not."

Martha raised an eyebrow. "She acts like she loves him?"

He sighed. "She did. He told me that she tried to kiss her once. Now, she focuses more on me, but... she's so mad at me, all the time. I don't get it."

"I'm sure she cares," she said as she gave Rory a sympathetic look.

"I hope you're right." He looked back in the direction of the exit. "Well, I'm going to go. See you around."

Martha smiled. "Good luck." She turned back to her room hesitantly. Her head still throbbed, but after her conversation with Rory she felt like doing some snooping of her own.

Maybe it was time she had a chat with Amy.

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><p>Rose walked into the TARDIS, head heavy with thoughts. She was worried about both Martha and Rory, and was wondering where River had ran off to. She walked up the steps to the console and sat down in the chair there, rubbing her neck tiredly. She looked up to the console screen. Although most of the symbols and words were alien, she understood the screen's meaning easily enough – it said that they still had 69 hours left until the TARDIS would be able to track the signal.<p>

"Not that long of a wait," a voice murmured behind her, and she turned to see the Doctor, who was focused on a small device in his hands. Rose recognized it from past adventures – it was a hand-held version of the TARDIS console screen that could operate separately.

"Didn't see you come up," she said.

He shrugged, still staring at the screen. "I try to be quiet." He weaved around the chair behind her so he could sit next to her.

She nodded. "Yeah. So what's on the screen, then?"

"Hmm?" he looked up, then back at the hand-held. "Oh, nothing really. Just checking up on something." He closed it quickly and stuck it in his jacket pocket.

She stared at him in curiosity, but didn't say anything. The Doctor looked up at the bigger console in front of them. "Two days..."

"Don't you mean three?"

He started, blinking, and looked at her. "Right, yes, of course."

They were both quiet for a while, and Rose was considering how she might be able to get away when the Doctor spoke again. "So how have things been back in the other universe?"

"Fine," she hesitated. "I suppose."

He raised both eyebrows, studying her. "What do you mean?"

"Just... some troubles with the Doctor. The other one, I mean."

"Like?"

She felt uncomfortable, talking to him about it, but couldn't say no. "He... well, everything was going fine – smashing, really – after you left, and it stayed that way for the longest time. We really were happy together. And then one morning... he just woke up different. He was all... sad-looking, and it seemed to hurt him when he looked at me, and... he was just... hollow."

She looked up at the Doctor and saw his expression. It was like he'd been told the worst news possible then, the way he looked. It reminded Rose of what her Doctor had looked like. "What happened next?" he asked, almost reluctantly.

Rose couldn't stop herself from snorting. "He... oh it's ridiculous... he broke up with me."

"And?"

"I've only seen him on occasion now, like at Torchwood, since we both work there."

She looked at him again to find him staring at the floor. It seemed to her like the life had been sucked from him – he looked devastated. "That's a shame, Rose," he said, without much conviction.

Unable to find something to say, Rose stood and stalked out of the TARDIS, cursing herself for her own stupidity. The Doctor had wanted her to tell him everything was going great and perfect, so he wouldn't feel guilty about not loving her anymore. Instead, she'd given him the truth, exactly what he didn't want, and made their relationship even worse. About fifty feet from the TARDIS she stopped walking and pressed a hand to her forehead, groaning. How much worse could things get?

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><p>Donna, walking along the caverns alone, was experiencing a new feeling. She had nothing to do.<p>

Donna led a busy life and didn't have downtime often, and such a thing while with the Doctor was unheard of. But sure enough, as she studied the dark red landscape around her, she found herself bored and with nothing really important to do.

She couldn't see anyone else in the nearby area – she knew Rose, Martha, Rory and probably the Doctor were at the TARDIS, so that just left Amy and River. She had diligently kept her eyes peeled for them as she walked, but no one was nearby. She was on the other side of the three abysses, and was sad to find that no one else had ventured this far.

Finding no real reason to keep going, Donna figured she should head back. She turned and frowned.

Which way was the TARDIS?

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><p>More coming soon!<p>

Also, I'd like to congratulate myself on having found common ground with Martha. I now like her.


	11. Chapter 11 Hesitation

Chapter 11! I have now gone through all the current Doctors in chapter form :)

I'm glad to see that in your reviews you guys are really getting in to guessing what's going to happen. I hope I can surprise you all. I know I'll surprise myself.

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><p>Amy walked slowly back to the TARDIS, sulking. She knew that River's advice was good and she should go talk to Rory, but Amy was a proud girl and she didn't want to admit being wrong. Still, Rory had seemed like he had a lot on his mind and she knew that she should listen. Her guilt, however, was outweighing everything else.<p>

She stopped walking as the TARDIS came into view. Knowing he was in there, angry at her, made it harder for her to think about apologizing. Why should she submit to him? After all, he had been rather rude, and he didn't seem to care at all about what happened to Rose, Martha and Donna. She headed forward – even slower now, her reluctance growing with every step. She saw suddenly the TARDIS doors open and Martha step out. The girl looked around, and, spotting Amy, began to walk over.

Amy waited, watching Martha's approach, and smiled at her as she came closer. "Hello, Martha."

"Amy," She dipped her head, returning the smile. "How are you?"

She bit her lip. "Oh, fine."

Martha gave her a look.

"Well, just some trouble with Rory. Nothing serious, though."

She turned and sat down in the dust facing the TARDIS, motioning for Amy to do the same. She obliged. "What happened?"

"I... He's just sort of pissing me off, you know? He doesn't seem to care about what's going on."

"I'm sure he cares," she replied. "Have you talked to him about why he's acting that way?"

The remainder of Amy's defenses were instantly shot down by Martha's calm and knowledgeable demeanor. "I... well, no. But it's not like I have much of a choice," she added quickly. "How am I gonna look if I come to him like that after getting so mad?"

"Well _I_ think you'd look like the bigger person. I think you'd be able to have a rather nice conversation like that."

Amy was stunned. The way Martha put it made so much sense. But at the same time, Amy didn't want to listen. She knew Rory and she knew he wouldn't act that way at all. "He'll be different."

She frowned. "No, he-"

"'No, he' what?" Amy said defensively. "What makes you think you know?"

Martha was obviously caught with this one. She opened her mouth, but no words came out as she struggled to find an excuse.

"You don't know my boyfriend," Amy concluded. "And talking to him won't help. He'll sort it out in his own head, and he'll realize he was wrong and apologize to me. So don't go shoving your nose where it doesn't belong." With that, she stood and stalked away from both the TARDIS and a dumfounded Martha.

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><p>As she watched Amy storm off, Martha groaned and put a hand to her head, finding that her headache was coming back. All she'd managed to do was make things worse for Rory and Amy. <em>Nice going there, Martha. Amy's right – you shouldn't be shoving your nose into other people's business. All it does is make it worse for everyone involved.<em>

She stood, cursing her own folly, and stomped back to the TARDIS to go get some rest.

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><p>River paced the edge of the abyss, head bent in thought, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Every now and then she shot a glance at the middle abyss, only fifty feet from her, as though checking to see if it had done anything. It never moved, but this didn't calm her in the slightest.<p>

River's entire mind, soul and body itched to know what was hidden there that the Doctor didn't want them to see. It seemed so simple – just walk over and look in. And yet... the way he had warned them had set her teeth on edge. She knew the Doctor, and she knew he only warned someone about something twice if it was very, _very_, life-threatening-important that they avoided it.

She also knew that the Doctor would never hang around a place that posed an immediate threat to him, and this just made the abyss's contents all the more interesting. Every fiber of her being burned to run over and look inside. But if this was so serious, so dangerous, she knew she shouldn't.

Oh, how cruel that pit was, hiding its secrets.

All she had to do was walk over. The simplest of tasks, yet this time it held such a weight of danger and death. Should she tempt fate? Would it be worth it this time?

Having escaped so many prisons and hung around the Doctor for so long, River found herself asking these questions often. Most of the time, however, she wasn't given time to think about it – it was do or die. Now she wished that the decision had less time left to make. She could now appreciate how much easier it was when she didn't have time to think things through.

Granted, this wasn't as extreme. She didn't _have_ to look into the abyss. She could simply walk away if she wanted to. But for River, leaving something so tempting untouched was a sin. It was _asking_ for someone to look inside. _Begging_. It wanted someone to share its secret with.

_Maybe I'm over-analyzing a bit,_ she thought so herself, pausing in her pacing pattern.

Yes, perhaps she was. Maybe it was so much simpler – look, or don't look. And yet there was so much weight behind it, so much foreboding. River couldn't imagine herself walking away from something like this. Yet at the same time, she had heard the tremor in the Doctor's voice – he _really meant it_. Don't look.

Don't look, River Song.

She bit her lip, shooting a glance at the TARDIS about a half mile away. She could just walk back and ignore it, and probably save her own life in the process. Or, she could feed her curiosity, see what was in the abyss, and likely end up dying from it.

She realized, then, that the Doctor has to meet her later because he recognized her. This spurred her to take a few steps toward the abyss.

_Time can be re-written._

She paused, and sighed in defeat. _Just go back to the TARDIS. Maybe you'll find out later._

She decided to listen to reason, just this once, and began walking back.

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><p>Yay! Hope you're enjoying it.<p> 


	12. Chapter 12 A Moonless Night

Finally! I was worried I might not get this chapter up in time, but I pulled it off.

**Important note: I feel like I might have been a bit confusing in this chapter, so keep in mind: in 33:25:58, the first number is hours, the second is minutes, and the third is seconds.** I don't know if that really was obvious or not, I'm just putting this here to be safe.

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><p>Night on the moon, deep underground, was no different than day.<p>

Being a moon, in had no set weather pattern, and what with the heat snaking up from the abysses and into the caverns, the temperature made no attempt to change. The TARDIS, however, had a set timer between night and day, and subsequently went into nighttime mode when it was ready. Following the functions of the TARDIS, everyone else went to bed shortly after.

Although the ship was air-conditioned, heat still managed to slip in from outside, and as a result everyone except Martha had abandoned their covers during sleep. Martha couldn't get to sleep – her headache had gotten worse and she was unnaturally cold, shivering violently. She had wrapped the covers tightly around herself, but they weren't helping at all.

She rolled over and instantly regretted, her head swimming from the movement. There was a sickening ache in her stomach. With some effort she sat up, bare legs dangling off the bed. She pressed her palms to her forehead, swallowing. She had the strangest feeling that she was missing something.

* * *

><p>Although she had been under the impression, Martha was not the only one awake. The Doctor was sitting in the console room, pressing one small blue button in order to flip between two different panels on the console screen. The first had been seen by everyone – it was the timer counting down how much longer it would be until the TARDIS was fully powered. It read 58:47:09. The second had only been seen by two others besides the Doctor.<p>

The screen had a new addition since Rose and River had seen it. There was a timer in the corner, away from the image of the galaxy and the mysterious Gallifreyan symbols. The countdown, in its own menacing way, read 33:25:58.

The Doctor flicked somewhat obsessively between the two, watching the numbers swirl past, his expression falling lower with every press of the small blue button. To anyone watching he would have seemed angry, melancholy, and maybe even slightly guilty.

As the console came to rest back on the second panel, he frowned sadly, shaking his head. He gazed down at where he knew Rory and Amy rested, and then up, at where Martha, Rose and River were. The Doctor had-

_Wait a minute._

He stood suddenly, just as Martha upstairs did the same thing.

"Where the hell is Donna?" They both exclaimed.

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><p>Donna was angry.<p>

She was angry at herself, for being unable to find the TARDIS, and at the caverns, for being such a vibrant shade of red and hurting her burning eyes. But mainly, she was mad at the planet for being _so bloody hot_.

Donna liked others to think she was capable of handling herself. She'd grown up with this philosophy and now had it so firmly implanted into her head that she had trouble admitting to even herself when she'd done wrong. But now, stuck in the dead of night on a burning hot alien planet, even she had to agree that she had indeed made a mistake and was hopelessly lost.

Despite how obviously dire her situation was, all she could think about was the heat. Her throat was dry and parched from over ten hours of walking, and the unsuccessful results of her search for the TARDIS weren't helping at all.

She wondered if they even knew she was gone.

A dry rustling sound above her head interrupted Donna's thoughts and she jumped, questioning if she really was alone here. What sort of creatures were on this planet? "That bloody Doctor never tells us anything," she said out loud, voice cracking from disuse.

All Donna knew for sure was that she had to find the TARDIS – or at least some water – very soon, or she wouldn't last.

* * *

><p>Headache forgotten, Martha ran from her bed, out the corridor and down the stairs, darting into the console room just as the Doctor pressed the blue button once more so the screen switched back to the first panel. Its mellow golden glow cloaked the two of them.<p>

It occurred to Martha then how awkward this situation was, considering she was only wearing tank top and a very skimpy pair of shorts with her hair pulled into a bun. Trying to ignore this, she noted the Doctor's worried expression and said, "Donna?"

"Donna," he nodded, unfazed by her outfit. "You don't know where she is either?"

"No," she crossed the distance between them quickly and stared helplessly down at the TARDIS controls. "Isn't there a way for you to find her?"

"I can track her," He supplied, and quickly punched in several different buttons and flicked a few switches before pounding something into the keyboard. What looked somewhat like a map appeared on the console screen, a blue dot glowing steadily in one corner with a red almost on the other side of the screen, blinking rhythmically.

"Is that Donna?"

"Yes," he said. "I can't pinpoint exactly where she is, but she's still underground, and alive, and moving." He paused. "Away from us."

Martha felt a wave of relief rush through her. "Well then fire up the TARDIS! Let's go get her."

To her extreme shock, the Doctor shook his head. "I can't. If we want the TARDIS to finish gathering energy, we can't move it at all."

"So we'll just come back here and restart. It hasn't been 24 hours yet – a one day setback isn't huge."

"Except the ship is very unstable when gathering this much energy," he said, nonchalantly stroking the edge of the console. "She's unpredictable during this time – it _might_ set us back a day, or it might set us back a millennium."

Martha sighed in frustration. "But Donna..."

He frowned. "I know. We'll keep watch on her though – she's a strong one, I'm sure she'll be fine."

"I hope you're right," she walked slowly away, heading back towards the staircase. "I suppose we'll tell everyone in the morning?"

He nodded, having already switched the screen back to the countdown.

She hesitated for a second at the foot of the stairs. She had noticed how distracted the Doctor seemed, and it worried her, but there was literally nothing she could do about it. He wasn't exactly talkative or open, and after her failure with Amy, she didn't feel to confident in the helping others department. She began her ascent. "Night, then."

As she reached the landing, Martha felt her headache return.

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><p>Hope that was a good one. It feels kind of short to me, but some good plot points in there.<p> 


	13. Chapter 13 Two Days

Chapter 13, my god. We got terrifyingly close to not getting this one posted tonight. I only barely managed to pull it off. Honestly, this chapter is close to plotless - it's just an update on some of the drama going on in the story.

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><p>As Rose, River, Martha, Amy and Rory each entered the console room, they all saw the countdown screen, proudly displaying the numbers 49:31:07 – a little over two days until the TARDIS would be ready. After Martha and the Doctor filled everyone else in on Donna's disappearance – much to their worry and stress, even Rory's – they all went outside to see what was going on.<p>

Rory and Amy had both experienced a very stressful night. Although the two of them had been beyond happy with the sleeping arrangements at first, the moment their fight began, they lost all interest in being alone in the same room. Rory had horrible trouble getting asleep, spending the first hour struggling with whether to say something or not. When Amy's snores, however, drifted across the room, he too fell into a shaky sleep.

Amy had secretly harvested worries of her own. After her shock at realizing that Rory _still_ hadn't apologized, she reconsidered both Martha and River's advice. She wanted to be on good ground with him again, but before she could pursue this, she fell asleep.

The end result of this night was that still neither of them would speak to the other.

Rose and River spent a good two hours lying awake and talking before they too went to bed. Rose was surprised at how easily she and River got along – considering both of them were in love with the Doctor, she was stunned that they even spoke at all. River seemed to her to be very approachable and level-headed. At the same time, this scared Rose – at even the slightest mention of the Doctor, she would get nervous, expecting a fight, whereas River wouldn't even react in the slightest. She didn't seem at all threatened by Rose or her interest in her lover.

During the night, River had asked her, "What do you suppose he thinks of us?"

Naturally Rose had tensed up at his name, but relaxed when it became apparent that a fight wouldn't start. "Well, I dunno," she replied slowly. "He's going to pick you though – he isn't interested in me anymore, I know it."

"Don't be so sure," River murmured back, a sense of foreboding behind her words. "Whatever was on that screen we saw last night seems really important to me. I think that's what's been leaving him so worried and distracted. I don't know what's on there, but it's important, I just know it."

"That doesn't mean it involves our love life!" she said back with a chuckle.

She didn't reply immediately. "I don't know, Rose. I just don't know. I'm following my gut here, and my gut says to pay attention to that screen."

"Well whatever it is, I hope it's not bad," the blonde said in return.

"I'd love for you to be right. But we all know how the Doctor is – death and destruction follow him, whether we like it or not."

River's words had left Rose in a strange mood that morning. As they all looked around the unchanged rocky red landscape, she yearned to know what was on the screen. It couldn't be bad, could it? All she saw on there was a picture of a galaxy surrounded by Gallifreyan symbols.

And yet the galaxy had seemed familiar.

So? What did she know about stars and constellations? Looking up at the night sky, it all seemed the same to Rose – millions of glittering round dots, winking at her, no pattern or design to them that made them memorable. She had never understood how stargazers did it.

Her time with the Doctor, however, had made her pay more attention. She remembered him showing her so many satellite images of galaxies they were visiting or nearby – he would point out the biggest or most important planets there, and every now and then there would be a supernova or exploding star going on in the area, and he would show her how to tell when those were there. They had laughed together at his descriptions of the residents on the neighboring planets, and he had put her into fits when he spoke of – and often embellished – the alien customs.

What had happened to those times?

She looked over at the Doctor, the new one, with a new face and personality and habits, who was studying the rocky ceiling with a faraway expression. Rose wondered if any of the old Doctor was still there, or if she was looking at a new person entirely. A person who had his memories, who knew of the times she had spent with him, of the love they had shared.

What was he hiding from her? What was on that screen?

She looked at the floor, feeling tired and at a loss. The galaxy on that screen could have been any of the ones she had seen – there were no real features to tell them apart. If only she had the knowledge that he did! Then she could read and understand the screen and know what was on it, understand what he was hiding. Why he hid it.

She went back into the TARDIS, shaking her head in defeat. The only way to find out what he knew was by talking to him, and considering their current relationship, she didn't want to do that.

_Another day spent wondering_, she thought. _Another day spent wishing he still loved you_.

* * *

><p>Donna needed water, and soon, or she would collapse.<p>

As a kid in school, she had learned about underground, naturally-made caverns, and knew that they sometimes hosted a stream of water somewhere which served the purpose of eroding the cavern and bring it to its current size and glory. The water streams were usually located somewhere obscure and out of the way, a place that was damp and musty. Granted, this was an alien moon and it wasn't likely for there to be places filled with water here. Still, it was her only hope, so she kept looking. All she needed was a place damp and musty.

Like a cave.

Donna turned to the side, looking out of the corner of her eye in an attempt to see the hole in the cavern walls that she had spotted before. Finally, and with some patience, she saw it again – the entrance to a cave.

She strode forward purposefully, not giving any care or worry about what might be inside. She was focused entirely on the slim hope that there was water in the cave. _I don't give a bloody damn if there's an alien dragon in there, for god's sake. I need some water._

She reached the entrance and hesitated for a slight second when she noticed how dark it was inside. For a moment she considered turning back, knowing she had no way to get any light, but then she noticed a faint glow coming from deeper in the cave.

She entered.

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><p>Sorry about how short and to the point the Donna bit is. I didn't put a massive amount of effort into this chapter, and I'm not too proud about it.<p> 


	14. Chapter 14 Secrets of Fire

Chapter 14!

Special thanks to **hosslover** - No, I was not upset with the length of your review. In fact, I would prefer if everyone's was as long as that - it really made my day, and I appreciate your opinion.

Also thanks to **David Tennant Stalker**. You've left a review on almost every chapter so far, so thanks!

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><p>The Doctor pulled out his hand-held console screen, staring at it sadly. It was the image of the galaxy – the timer now read 12:13:42. He shook his head, frowning, and pocketed it.<p>

* * *

><p>Rory had spend the last several hours wondering how he could hold a steady conversation with Amy. Under normal circumstances, he wasn't very good at it, but now, when she seemed moodier than ever, he didn't know if he could even form a sentence. He picked mindlessly at a loose thread on his shirt, feeling at a loss.<p>

All he had to do was walk up. Say something.

Hesitant but determined, he crossed the flat, rocky landscape to where Amy was sitting on a rock, staring at the abysses. _Just say something, you dolt. Anything._

"Hi."

_Except that._

She looked up slowly, a lost expression on her face, then focused in on him. "Oh, hi Rory."

To his dismay, he didn't hear any interest or happiness in her voice. "Hi, Amy. Er- how are you?"

"How do you think?" she said quietly.

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking down. "Listen, Amy. I didn't mean to sound insensitive or anything when we had that row. It's just... I really don't think we should get involved in this."

"It's the Doctor, Rory. I think we're at the point where his business is ours."

Rory wasn't so sure, but he was so happy that she was even speaking to him he decided not to mention it. "I guess. Still, we don't really know these people."

"We do now," she said with a shrug, and the slightest hint at a smile. "And they're nice, aren't they? I think they appreciate us trying to help."

He smiled and sat down next to her. "I hope you're right. I'm just... lately, Amy, I've been a bit worried about all the time we're spending with the Doctor."

She frowned, meeting his eyes, and seemed genuinely interested. "How so?"

"He seems like a loner to me. I know that he hides things from us, all the time, and I think they might be important things. It's just..."

"What?"

Rory looked at her and caved. "I'm worried about losing you to him."

To his surprise, she tossed her head back and laughed, a loud, raucous laugh that went on for a long time. "Rory, you dolt! You don't think I love you? Is this about that kiss I had with him?" She turned suddenly serious. "Rory, that was nothing. I was just..." She blushed and looked away. "Well, I was worried back then, about getting married. I wasn't sure if it was right. So I went to him for help, and... Oh, forget that. It's gone now. You're not getting out of my sight, mister!"

She laughed again, and he did too, feeling some of his worries wash away. They kissed, and he finally felt himself relax.

Just then Martha came up, looking tired and flustered. "Just came to see... You two have made up, then?"

Amy nodded smiling. "Hey, Martha, sorry about being so hard on you earlier."

Martha's face went blank, and she blinked several times. "What? No, that was nothing. I was being nosy, you were right." She swayed slightly.

Amy's smile was wiped away. "Martha, are you feeling alright?"

"Absolutely fine," she said, and collapsed on the ground.

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><p>"She's fine," The Doctor said as he came back into the console room after having put Martha in her bed. "Got dizzy. It must have been the heat."<p>

"I dunno, she's seemed sort of sick to me lately," Rose said.

"Perhaps it's the alien climate?" River suggested.

The Doctor shook his head. "It's not that dramatic of a change here for that." He frowned suddenly. "It probably has nothing to do with..." His frown slid further down his face.

"What?" Rory asked when the Doctor didn't continue.

"Nothing," The Timelord shook his head, as though something irritating was in it.

River walked up to him slowly. "Are you sure there's nothing..."

"No, I'm fine," He moved suddenly and quickly, to the TARDIS console screen. "37:45:10," He read aloud. "Not that long now."

"Sure," Amy said slowly.

"Well, I'm sure you were all busy with something," the Doctor said as he clapped his hands together. "Martha will be okay, no need to worry."

He herded them out the front doors and shut them behind him with a sigh. Once again, almost obsessively, he pulled out the hand-held and glared at it. 11:05:23 stared back at him.

* * *

><p>Donna followed the thin, inconvenient passageway. It was pitch black for a long time, and she had nothing to guide her but for running her hands along the bumpy rock walls, which she hated to do in case something bit her. Finally a low orange light began to pierce through the gloom, and the passageway opened into a cavernous room with a thin stream of water pouring out of a crack in the rock.<p>

She looked around for several seconds, unable to find the source of the orange light. Although not knowing where it came from irritated her, it wasn't near as important as getting some water. Donna drank without hesitation from the warm trickle, not caring if the water was poisonous.

After she'd had her fill she sighed in satisfaction and took another glance around the room. The ceiling was incredibly high, at least fifty feet above her, and topped with impressive stalactites. It was the same burning red color as the rest of the caverns. She walked around the massive area and settled down on a relatively flat rock, happy to get some rest.

She stayed there for a while, content to not be moving, until the orange glow was about to drive her mad. She simply _had_ to know where it was coming from.

She stalked the entire room, searched all crevices, but still could not find where it came from. Finally, a good half hour later, she was standing facing the exit when she noted that the walls were slowly getting lighter in color. That could only mean that the light was getting brighter. But how...

Donna turned, saw what was on the wall opposite her, and screamed.

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><p>Nice cliffie? Methinks so.<p> 


	15. Chapter 15 No Answers

I had 10 minutes to write this, and I did it in 30. (Take that, time travel!) -.0

Short chapter here.

To **Hossluver**: You succeeded in making the most recent review better than the other one. I didn't know that was possible.

To **Mewisbetterthanyou** and **David Tennant Stalker**: Thanks! I like you guys ;)

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><p>Martha sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes blearily, trying to remember what had happened. She remembered feeling sick and a bit woozy when she'd exited the TARDIS to see Amy and Rory talking. Hoping they were making up, she came over to see, but began feeling even more woozy and sick, and then blacking out in the dust.<p>

She had no idea what was wrong with her. Before they had gotten here, she had felt completely fine, if a little nervous about what was going on. Now, on this underground red moon, she was sick, in pain, and even passing out.

What was going on?

No one else seemed to be having any problems – It was just her. Was she crazy? Was something wrong with her?

Did, perhaps, the Doctor know something he wasn't saying?

She had to talk to him, just to be safe. What if her life was in danger? She had to know what was going on.

Getting up – shakily – from the bed, Martha crossed the room and instantly felt tired. She leaned on the door frame for support, for the first time feeling genuinely scared. Her strength was sapped and she was close to useless. What if this was permanent?

Her fear giving her new-found determination, she moved carefully out of the room and across the hall, going slowly and steadily down the stairs. It took her several minutes before she reached the console room where she hoped to find the Doctor. To her great luck and relief, he was there, sitting in his chair by the console and staring at the screen above him.

Reaching the archway above the staircase, Martha leaned against it and questioned, "Doctor?"

He looked slightly lost for a moment, then met her gaze. "Martha. You're awake."

"Yes," she was put off for a second by his bluntness. "Doctor, what's wrong with me?"

He averted his gaze almost instantly. "I don't know. Maybe the heat has an effect on you."

"But no one else seems bothered by it."

He shrugged, still not looking at her. "Perhaps you're just... special."

Despite herself, Martha couldn't help but feel irritated. "What do you mean, 'special'? I can handle myself like everyone else here." She knew something was wrong with her and it was definitely beyond sensitivity to heat. Why wouldn't he just tell her?

His eyes wandered to the console screen, which displayed the timer that read 32:12:16. "I know you can handle yourself, Martha. It was just a theory."

She calmed. Maybe he really _didn't_ know what it was. "Well... is it life-threatening? Permanent?"

He brought a hand to his temple, sighing. "I don't know. But I really don't think so."

Again, Martha had a suspicion he was hiding something – what else would make him suspect that it wasn't dangerous? Still, she knew better than to push. "Well... alright. What's everyone doing?"

The Doctor gave another glance at the screen. "It's about time the TARDIS went into nighttime mode. I'd assume they're getting ready for bed." He looked directly at her. "You should get some rest. It will help."

The worries pushed harder at her. How did he know what would help? "Okay. See you later, then."

He watched her go unsteadily back up the stairs, his expression unreadable. With a sigh, he once again pulled out his hand-held and stared at it – the timer now read 06:23:13.

* * *

><p>River felt unsatisfied.<p>

Something was up, that much was obvious. She knew she wasn't the only one who suspected it – the signs were staring them in the face. The Doctor, knowing something about Martha, but hiding it. Whatever she and Rose had seen on that screen. The warning he gave to avoid the middle abyss.

But what did it all mean? Was it connected?

Knowing her Doctor, it probably was. But what was it connected _to_? The mysterious enemy?

"So many questions," she murmured aloud, knowing Rose was in the other room and couldn't hear.

Now how did she go about getting answers?

The abyss wasn't an option. Asking the Doctor about the screen wasn't really a good idea either. So maybe she should visit Martha? River was about to go ahead with this plan when she realized that the poor girl was sick and probably very tired.

She sat back down on her bed as Rose came in from the adjacent room, smiling at her. _Looks like I'll have to wait a bit longer_, she thought dismally.

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><p>And now, just to be a complete jerk, I haven't returned to Donna! Muahahahah!<p>

**Fair Warning to Everyone:** These next few chapters are going to be stuffed with answers! But from the answers will come sadness and horror, which will probably make you upset and possibly angry at me, but I assure you that things will improve for _every single character_ at some point. Also - not all characters will experience said sadness and horror.

Curious? You should be. Excited? If you are, you'll regret it.


	16. Chapter 16 The Timer Reaches Zero

This chapter took me entirely too long to post.

To **It's Timey Wimey**: At the point in the timeline that I am writing this from, it's unknown whether River can read Gallfreyan or not. Because of this, I'm leaving it up to you: did she know what it said, and not tell? Or did she really not know?

To **hossluver**: You somehow manage to keep your reviews consistently entertaining. I am at the point where I look forward to them.

To **David Tennant Stalker**: Martha is a good person, I swear to god.

* * *

><p>Night again.<p>

Perhaps it was the heat, or maybe simply stress, or possibly the powerful pull of fate, but for whatever reason Rose couldn't sleep. She had tossed and turned, restless in her bed alongside the gently snoring River, but nothing cured it. She had to get up, to walk around.

Exiting the bedroom, Rose proceeded down the hallway, subconsciously heading towards the console room. She knew from the many hours she had lain awake that it was near dawn, but the TARDIS was still in nighttime mode. She wondered if the Doctor was still up.

As she made her way to the bottom of the stairs and onto the landing by the console, she found that he was indeed awake and staring with the darkest of expressions at the image of the galaxy, which now held a timer that read 00:00:00. Another thing was off – the Doctor was doing something that scared Rose very much.

Rose Tyler, in her many adventures with the Doctor, had seen many different sides of him. She had seen his pain and anguish; his anger and fury. She had seen his brightest of sides; the times when nothing was better than his smiling face. She had witnessed the destruction he could cause, and the life that could come from it too.

But never, in all her time with him, had she seen the Doctor cry.

Here he was now, in a state that anyone ignorant of the Doctor would have described as pitiful, with his emotions laid out on the table for all to bear witness. Rose could see the tear tracks along his cheeks, and the fresh ones lying in wait, pooled in his eyelids. She was lost for words, but it didn't matter – he already knew she was there.

"Oh Rose. Rose Tyler," he murmured, eyes still on the screen. "This is all my fault, Rose."

"What?" she dared to breath, crossing the room to his side.

"Look at it Rose," he said, his tone bordering on angry. "Look at what happened. You know that galaxy, Rose. You know what it is."

She glared at the image, willing it to make sense. "Yeah, sure. I don't know which one though."

"It's your home Rose," he said, voice hushed. "It's the other universe. But look, just look-" he paused in his speech, pressing several buttons until the image zoomed into a rather cold and unfriendly-looking beach. "Bad Wolf Bay." He frowned. "Not anymore."

"I don't understand," she said slowly, an inexplicable feeling of dread in her stomach.

With the press of more buttons, the screen zoomed back to the galaxy. "It's just an image, Rose. It's not real-time. It's just a picture. A memory."

"What's happening real-time, then?"

He looked up at her, sadly. "Oh, Rose." With the press of a single red button, everything on the screen changed.

The galaxy disappeared, replaced with a supernova of colors – multitudes of red intermingling with flaming oranges and dark, terrifying blacks. The middle of the screen was dominated with the sight of a huge explosion, like walking into a movie in the middle of an explosive action scene. Smaller, yet still unnerving explosions were placed around the main one, like a chain reaction had set them off. Hunks of dark and mysterious blackness floated about the image like bits of shrapnel.

"What..." she whispered, horrified.

"It's gone, Rose. It's all gone. Jackie, Pete, the other Doctor. They're dead. That entire universe is dead."

Her eyes floated to the timer, with it's menacing zeroes staring back at her. "There was a timer." Her heart smashed into her chest. "There was a timer, counting down. You _knew_. You _knew_, and you didn't tell me!"

His bloodshot eyes gazed sightlessly at the ground. "I was trying to protect you. Do you remember, that last time we met on Bad Wolf Bay? I left you there, on an alternate universe, when I just have easily could have dropped you off in this one. Do you want to know why I did that? This is why."

"_So I could blow up_?"

"No. There are... rules, Rose, to crossing dimensions. Pete was one of them – the fact that his death had been warped by time travel in this universe meant that a new version couldn't enter here without consequences. _Big ones._ Think all of existence imploding into itself."

Her head was pounding. "You left me _to die_."

"No," he said, without fight in his voice. "I didn't know for certain if it would happen during your time. When I first felt it – the universe's dying breath – was when I was teleported there during our fight against the Cybermen and Daleks. I could _feel it_, Rose. The universe was screaming for help. It's time was ending, but I couldn't gauge exactly when it would go. I _hoped, _after you got stuck there, - Oh Rose I _prayed_ – that it wouldn't happen until after you had lived out your life. Nice and peaceful, no problems.

"And then you came back, to save me and Donna, and to save the world. And I saw you again, and it all came back – the pain of knowing what I'd left you to.

"When I brought you and the other Doctor back there, I felt it again, a literal screech, loud and pounding in my head – the universe's warning to its inhabitants. Yet still I went against my judgment – I prayed that the universe wouldn't die until you had.

"I knew that as the world got closer to its final days, the other Doctor would hear it, too – he couldn't then, being only half Timelord. That's why he left you. He felt the tortured howls of the universe, and he couldn't live with it, the pain. It was killing him. He had to get away, in a vain attempt to keep the death from reaching you.

"I kept tabs on you all, of course. When I finally had a set date for the universe's destruction, I knew you would die and there was nothing I could do. I just had to forget. Of course I couldn't.

"And now, here you are. You came back, right before your home's demolition. Our enemy saved your life."

Rose shook her head, stepping back, mind reeling. "No, no, that's not possible. They're not dead. He's not dead." She looked at the Doctor. "_You sent us to our death, all because of Pete?_"

"Rose, I know you," he said, his tear-streaked face harboring a pleading expression. "I know that if I told you, you would have died rather than leave Pete. It would have been your decision, and you would have picked the option that would have crushed me. I couldn't do it."

Tears had started flowing down her face on their own accord. "You _killed them_," she hissed, a deathly curl in her words. "You would have let us die, rather than face the pain of losing me."

His pleading expression bordered on grovelling. "Forgive me, Rose Tyler. I didn't think it would end this way. I didn't expect this to happen."

She began backing up, heart pounding. "How could you... I thought I knew you... And you just-" she stopped suddenly, both verbally and physically. "I thought I could trust you." She blinked in disgust. "I _loved_ you. And you just-"

She didn't continue. Instead, she fled up the stairs, tears pouring without hesitation from her eyes.

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><p>I just <em>know<em> you're pissed at me now.


	17. Chapter 17 Who To Go To?

HAHAHAHA! Do you know what today is? I know what today is! It's August 27th! I just watched the new episode, and it was damn good!

Anyways, I hope this isn't crap or something because of the massive amount of Who plot shoved in my head.

To **hossluver**: I'm at the point where I look forward to your reviews. Especially your screenplay clips. You leave me laughing.

To **intrepidfish**: Don't save stuff for a later review! I want it all!

Also, I've noticed some people commenting on the lengths of my chapters. I will agree that I wish they were longer, and there is a lot more description I could put into them, but I've only been troubled by length a few times in this story. I'm happy if the chapter is above 1,000 words, and although I haven't reached that a few times, I'm pretty damn proud. On my Microsoft Word, this currently comes up as 62 pages and nearly 20,000 words.

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><p>No one will ever know for sure how it happened. Some say a recorder had been left on in the TARDIS console room – a few suspect that the others had known all along. The largest amount of people believe River had been spying underneath the stairs. But, no matter how it happened, by morning everyone knew what had become of the alternate universe.<p>

Martha was shocked. She tried to put it into perspective – the Doctor thought Rose would rather die than abandon her father, so he didn't tell her ahead of time. Rose had been dumped by the other Doctor in his pain, and after mysteriously getting sent here, they all perished. This much made sense. Still, Martha wondered who was right here, if anyone. The Doctor had done what he thought was right, but that didn't mean Rose's reaction wasn't acceptable or understandable.

Martha, being Martha, had a natural-born need to comfort those in pain. The trouble was, she had no idea who to go to first. The Doctor had just realized his earth-shattering mistake – but Rose had just lost her entire family.

Who to go to?

She rubbed her neck, head still pounding from her mysterious and vicious sickness. She didn't feel any better, even after that long sleep she'd had. Again, the thought crossed her mind that this might be life-threatening. Maybe she should be worrying more about herself than others.

Still, it wasn't in her nature. She couldn't walk away from a situation like this without saying something about it. The question was, to who?

Maybe it would be smart to approach a third party about this one.

Martha considered her options. Since being teleported to the TARDIS, she had mainly hung around Donna and Rose. Donna wasn't here, and Rose wasn't an option...

But she'd also been involved with Rory and Amy.

Martha got up and headed towards their room.

* * *

><p>Rory stepped out of the bathroom connected to his and Amy's room. He dragged a towel through his newly-washed hair, having just gotten a shower and dressed. He turned to see her sitting on the bed, staring at the wall, still in her PJ's with a cold, disconnected look on her face. "Amy?"<p>

She didn't move, and her lips barely even twitched as she whispered, "What if we end up like that?"

He walked over, tossing the towel onto the bed. "Like what?"

She looked up at him, seeming genuinely terrified. "Remember the stories the Doctor would tell us, about his past companions? He said that Rose ended up with her own Doctor, but he's gone now. He exploded with the universe. What if..."

"...That happened to me?" He finished for her, placing a hand on her shoulder in concern.

"Yeah," she said, voice hoarse. "I was... I was pretty bloody mean to you earlier, Rory. What if we ended like that? He broke up with her, before he... What if..."

He leaned down and pressed his lips gently to her cheek, removing them only to murmur, "I'm never breaking up with you, Amy."

She looked down, mixed emotions on her face. "But what if I..."

A knife of fear sliced through Rory's heart. "Amy, you wouldn't break up with me. Would you?"

"You've seen how mad I can get, Rory," she replied. "We hadn't even had a big row two days ago, and yet I blew up over it. I might have broken up with you over that! What if we have something bigger, and I do leave you, and then you..."

He shook his head, calming. "No, Amy. You're smart. You wouldn't do that."

She looked down again, and just then a small knock sounded on the door. "Yeah?" Rory called.

"It's me," Martha's voice sounded sheepishly through the wood. "Is it a good time?"

"Sure," he replied, sitting on the bed as she came in and closed the door behind her.

"You two alright?"

"Yeah, fine," Rory said.

"What's the matter?" Amy asked, her voice low and disconnected.

Martha crossed the room hesitantly and sat on the bed, being sure to give the two of them their space. "It's Rose. I've been thinking about what happened."

"We all have," Amy grumbled in a sarcastic tone.

Rory asked, "What exactly?"

Martha looked down. "Well, they've both got to be stressing, right? Shouldn't someone talk to them?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "What would we say, though?"

"I'm sure I could think of something, that's not the trouble. It's who to go to first."

"The Doctor," Amy said, just as Rory said, "Rose."

They looked at each other. "The Doctor, of course," Amy said, flustered. "Seeing things from his point of view would make talking to Rose easier."

"But what if Rose saw that conversation?" he countered. "She'd take it the wrong way."

"Then have a quick talk with him," she replied. "He's tougher, he doesn't need a long one."

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose?"

"No, you'd still get some helpful stuff out of him."

"You know how he is, he'd beat around the bush."

Martha sighed in despair. "This isn't helping!"

"Sorry Martha," Amy said, narrowing her eyebrows. "I still say the Doctor."

"And I still say Rose," Rory added.

Martha glared fiercely at the ground, thinking about everything that the two of them had said, as well as her own ideas. Finally she said, "Nothing to you Amy, but I think I'm going to go to Rose first, just to be safe."

She nodded. "No offense taken." she looked at Rory. "I'm gonna take a shower."

"Okay," he said, and to Martha's retreating form, "See you around."

"Yeah, thanks," Martha said. She proceeded up the stairs to the 25th floor, heading to the room Rose and River shared. She gently tapped the door open to find the inside empty. She frowned, worried, then realized that River was in the console room and Rose must have gone outside to think and get some fresh – if hot – air. Maybe she should just go back to bed. Yes, she would. Get some sleep, rest her pounding head, and talk to Rose later.

Little did she know, this was a decision Martha would deeply regret.

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><p>That's all for now. More things of much importance soon.<p>

Also - did you like Let's Kill Hitler?


	18. Chapter 18 Falling

Everyone, please congratulate me, for I have succeeded in writing a chapter that is over 2000 words.

Not only that, but I think I might have enough time to post two today.

To **sablize**: I agree completely with your reaction to Let's Kill Hitler.

To **David Tennant Stalker**: I cAn HaZ mOOdZ aLl thE TImE!

Now everyone, prepare yourself, for I believe that this chapter is going to get some interesting feedback.

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><p>Rose's heart was pounding, her head spinning, every fiber of her being going haywire, kicking and screaming, pushing and fighting, refusing the truth that her family and love were dead. She pressed, with little conviction, against the door to the TARDIS and stepped outside, almost staggering, stomach burning with pain. She closed her eyes, head bowed solemnly.<p>

They were _not_ gone. They couldn't be gone. A universe exploding, a whole world, a whole _eternity_, entire lives and planets, beings and bits of creation, suddenly gone? It couldn't be possible, could it? It wasn't just her family – everyone on that alternate Earth was gone. Everyone in that _universe_ was gone.

She remembered working part-time at a shop there. Her boss's name was Fred. She'd hated him, but that didn't matter now – he was dead. He'd always yelled at her, telling her to be nicer to the customers, clean the floor, do something right for once. Rose would never hear that again.

Another girl that had worked there had been named Jane. Jane was sweet, with auburn hair, a charming smile, and was nice to Rose. They'd had a lot in common, and were becoming good friends. In fact, they were planning on meeting up, maybe having lunch together, the day after Rose was sent here. And now she was dead. Gone. Never coming back. Rose would never hear her laugh again, or talk about how cute the guys were who came into the shop. She'd never hear her joke about girl's outfits, or make up stories about everyone having secret lives, and who's was what. She'd never see that smile again; the auburn hair.

Her mum. Oh, how much Rose had hated Jackie at times. How obstinate she'd been, scoffing at the memory of the Doctor when he was brought up, and making fun of _her_ Doctor. How she'd treated Rose like she was still a kid, because she was still living with them. How she'd told Rose, "You could do better than Torchwood, or that nasty shop with Fred. Why do you settle for that? My baby's better. Look at the paper – there's so many better jobs in there."

How Rose had scoffed at her, said, "Mum, Torchwood's fine, and I don't even spend that much time at the shop."

Oh, how she wished that she'd spent more time with her mum. They would laugh each night, Jackie braiding her hair and talking about how much better this universe was. Rose laughing and mentioning some of its faults.

Why hadn't she cherished those moments, when she had them?  
>She realized, with a sense of horror, that Jackie must have spent her final days in torturous worry, wondering what had happened to her baby. Trying to find Rose, begging people if they'd seen her. Rose could even imagine her going into the shop; talking to the stuck-up Fred, begging him if he knew where her daughter was.<p>

She could imagine Jane, sitting on the balcony at the top floor of her flat, wondering what had happened to her friend.

Her hear raced in her chest as she imagined her Doctor, sitting alone at their house, staring at the wall and struggling with the fiery pain of feeling the universe die, and knowing that Rose was probably dead, or had run away from him, and that he would never see her again. She wanted to scream with agony at the unfairness of it. How good he had been to her, how sweet, how he had whispered her name, saying he'd never leave her, that he was made for her and didn't regret killing all those Daleks, because even though it had gotten him stuck here, he was stuck with her.

She couldn't stop herself from wondering what his last thought had been.

What had it felt like for him, to feel himself dying alongside the screams of the exploding universe? Had they died as one, both feeling each others pain, or separate, two entities cursing the others existence? Had he been with anyone as he died? She could see an image in her head of his hand clasped in Jackie's, eyes closed as fire engulfed them both.

They couldn't be gone. Could they?

She had seen it, on the console. She'd seen the remains of what had once been her home, the smoking ashes of millions of years of life. Rose wanted nothing more than to be told it was some sick joke, not real, just faked to see how she would react. And _hell_, oh how mad she would be, but at least this wouldn't be real, this pain and fear, this hollow, endless ache in her soul, this guilt. Guilt that she was living and they weren't.

She thought about her dad, and the sadness overwhelmed her. After the Doctor had left for the final time, she would sit with him by the TV some nights, and he'd ask her about what the other him had been like. And she'd tell the story of how she'd met him, and nearly destroyed the universe in the process, and she'd admit to him how bad she felt for having done that, how much trouble and pain it had caused the Doctor. He would lean down, and brush a lock of hair from her face, and say, "I wouldn't have it any other way, because now I can hear these stories from you, about me, and him, and everything that happened."

And she'd lean her head against his shoulder, and whisper, "Maybe you're right."

He was gone, too. He would've been gone either way.

Oh, why had the Doctor done this? What had caused him to think that it would be better? Was it all her fault – something she'd said or done that made him believe she would take this the best? He said it was because of Pete. He believed she would pick death over abandoning him. Did all of this really come down to Pete?

He had changed, the Doctor. He had changed oh so much since the first time they'd met, years ago in a dark alley on Christmas Eve. Yes – she remembered now. When he'd regenerated, she hadn't quite believed it, but now, after all these years to think and look back, she knew it was true: the injured man she'd met in the alley, telling her she'd have a good year, had been the Doctor.

And then he'd changed again, and she couldn't reach him. He was someone else entirely. She remembered them sitting in the TARDIS console room, listening to him talk about his past regenerations. "Ten of them," he'd said. "I've got to be mad to have survived ten of them."

And this man, his eleventh, was far away from the others, utterly out of reach. It didn't fall down to just the simple fact that he didn't love her – something in him had changed, something that hadn't changed before. He wasn't the smiling, wild man in a trench coat with a blue box that she'd known before. He was something darker, something scarier, something that didn't love or care for her at all.

Something that had let her family die.

She huffed the stifling hot air around her, unable to breathe or think clearly. Pressing a hand to her head, Rose started running forward, small rocks on the ground tripping her up. She ran, and then ran faster, and kept running as though she could run from the pain. She ran until she could barely breathe, gasping in the hot air around her as she lay on the blood red ground.

What would she do, when all of this was over? She had nowhere left to go. Her family was dead, her love was dead, and as for the Doctor? For all she cared, he could be dead too.

There was nothing left for her here. Nothing left for her anywhere.

Very slowly, realization dawning in her dark brown eyes, Rose raised her head and stared at the sudden drop-off of the ground only ten feet in front of her. The edge of a dark and welcoming abyss.

Yes, she could end it. She could end it, right here, right now.

No more pain, no more suffering: just falling.

It was right there, right in front of her, the ultimate solution to her sadness and the horrible pain in her heart. All she had to do was jump; fall. Just falling.

The Doctor wouldn't care. He probably wouldn't even notice her absence. He'd forgotten about her and the love they had shared a long, _long_ time ago. All of the trouble here, with them getting teleported, could be solved without her. Donna could go home, Martha would have Torchwood and Mickey, Amy would have Rory, the Doctor would have River. She was the only problem without a solution.

And here it was; her solution. Staring at her.

Falling – the sudden, jarring peace of knowing it was all over.

No one would miss her, no one would blame her for choosing this fate. Sure, maybe Donna and Martha might be sad for a while, but they had their own lives, people waiting for them, and eventually they would move on. Rose didn't have that. She had nothing.

Nothing except this, right here, the abyss in front of her.

It called to her, telling her that she was wise, that jumping was the best choice she could make. Saying she wouldn't regret it. She honestly _could_ hear its voice in her head, supporting her thoughts, agreeing with her that the only life left for her was the afterlife.

_Was_ there an afterlife? If there was, would she see her family there, see her Doctor? Would Jane be there? Would she be able to apologize to them and make amends, explain what happened?

Even if there wasn't, she should still jump. It would be better that way.

Rose stood and walked shakily to the edge. She looked down and saw the endless blackness, the sheet of nothing waiting to take her. She sat, dangling her feet over the edge, as though playing with fate. The endless dark swirled around her legs; seemed to embrace them, welcoming her, praying for her to jump.

The abyss seemed unnaturally cold to her in the heat of this planet. Shouldn't it be even hotter? She shook her head. Cold or heat, Rose was tempted to take it.

She looked back, seeing the TARDIS far away, barely visible on the red horizon. No movement stirred beside it. No one to stop her.

She considered – was there any real reason for her to stay? Everyone she'd ever loved was dead, even the Doctor in a way. There was no one left to care about her.

Why should she stay here and live in anguish, when she could jump and be free of the pain and the guilt; the horror?

Rose braced her hands against the rocky edge, considering how easy it would be to push off and slip away. That was all it took, just one push, to end the pain. She would never feel her heart pound again, never feel the ache in her head, or the horrid, hollow burning in her chest. It would all just go away.

Again, she looked back at the TARDIS, swallowing. They would wonder, if for a short time, what had happened to her. She took a fingernail and decidedly scrawled into the dust: _I'm sorry to have caused you all so much trouble. Goodbye._

Now they would know, and there would be no fuss.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed off the edge.

Rose's train of thought was understandable, if upsetting, and her decision could also be seen as plausible. Her pain had caused her much grief, and her choice to fall made sense.

But what Rose Tyler hadn't realized was that she'd just jumped off the middle abyss.

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><p>I must admit that I made myself cry while writing this.<p>

Anyways, I hope you liked it.


	19. Chapter 19 No Anything

Yay! Happy (not really) chapter!

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><p>He felt it. He felt it take her.<p>

Although the Doctor's first instinct was to stay quiet and check on his own, and hopefully find out he was wrong, he couldn't stop himself from crying out with shock. He had been sitting in his office, staring at a blank console screen, when the feeling hit him, and his cry brought everyone running.

"What is it?" River asked, flying ahead of everyone else in the doorway.

He didn't answer. He stood and pushed past them, running as fast as he could down the stairs, past the console room and out the doors, charging across the featureless red plains, fear driving his feet forward. The others followed at a distance, unable to keep up with his vigorous speed.

The Doctor reached the edge of the abyss, having seen and read the message scrawled in the dirt before reaching it. He stopped, stooping, and stared into the blackness.

"Doctor," Amy said, gaze flicking uncertainly between him and the message. "Isn't this the middle abyss?"

"Yes."

"But hang on," Rory said. "Did Rose really..."

"Yes." he replied stiffly.

There was silence, a taut, painful silence, as reality sunk in. "But... she can't have just..." Martha was at a loss for words, struggling with the stark truth before her.

"Doctor," River murmured slowly, taking a step forward. "Why did you want us to stay away from this abyss? What's in it?"

Still facing away from them, he raised his head, expression dark and grim. "The Void," he growled.

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><p>Time, among just about everything else, doesn't exist in the Void, so Rose had no idea how long it was that she lay there, floating, before she realized that she wasn't dead.<p>

Her eyes were open, but she saw nothing. She had the strongest conviction that she should be scared, but she could feel no emotion. There was nothing here, so little of anything that there wasn't even nothing. There was no anything.

She wanted to speak, to vocalize, to prove that she was still alive, but it was like she had no mouth, no body, no mind even, and yet somehow she could still think. Her memories were all in tact – jumping from the abyss's edge, falling, and then... then she was here.

Where was here?

She could feel something, a sort of gentle tug at the edge of her mind, a friendly tug, asking her to silence her thoughts. It prodded at her mind, pushed, clawed its way into her head, her memories, her emotions, and she was powerless to resist.

It called to her. It whispered in her mind, and it opened her eyes to the no anything around her, and showed her its majesty. She saw the shapes among the black, the beauty of the endless wasteland of shadow. She saw life in the shadow, clips of it, like snatches from reality. They didn't feel real, however. The life felt like a dream, some long-ago memory, from another time that she couldn't remember and didn't care to. It showed her how peaceful the black was, how good it could be. It taught her this place's name – The Void.

Her heart would have burned with happiness, if she could experience emotions. There was no emotion, here in the Void, not even nothing. There was no anything. She liked it, the raw expanse of nothing. Why, she asked herself, should she be something?

She had once had a name. It could have been minutes ago, or a million years, she couldn't remember. It didn't matter, though, because she had forgotten the name and it wasn't important here. She wanted to be a part of the black, of the no anything. The only name she need remember here was "Void."

It released Its ties to reality, and cherished the feeling of being nothing. If It could have felt emotion then, It would have been happy, oh so happy, to be a part of the Void. It was all It could ever remember wanting. Now, It could be no anything, alongside the no anything around It.

It floated in silence through the Void.

* * *

><p>"The Void?" Martha questioned, heart pounding with fear. The Doctor had talked to her about the Void once. He said it was the space between the universes, a place of endless nothing that swallowed reality and killed all living things. Could Rose really be stuck in <em>that<em>?

"Yes, the Void," the Doctor's voice seemed to have had the life sucked from it.

"Doctor, the Void is its own place," River reminded him. "It can't just be in an abyss."

"There was a crack," he said, voice breaking. He hadn't moved from his position at the edge of the abyss, kneeling there. "A crack in space, a very dangerous crack, one that leads to the Void. I'd planned on sealing before we left, but I couldn't do it now, because the TARDIS was powering up."

"What happens in the Void?" Amy asked quietly.

"No anything. It takes your mind, and your body and thoughts and everything that is you, and it turns you into a part of itself. It makes you an extension of itself."

"So... It killed Rose?" Martha said, head spinning in horror.

"No, it did worse," he grumbled. "Because she's still living. She's still in existence, and always will be, except now she's the Void."

"Can't we go in there and save her?" Rory asked.

"No, she's long gone," the Doctor's voice was strangely without emotion. "And anyways, going in there would be suicide, and the amount of power the Void would get from the TARDIS would end all of the worlds in existence. It would end everything."

"Get away from there," River said suddenly, reaching for the Doctor's hand.

He stood then, and turned on her.

_"Why should I get away from here, River?_" he screamed. "_Rose is down there! Rose is dead! This is the closest I can ever get to her again, and you're telling me to get away?"_

River stepped back, eyes wide. "No, I didn't mean like that. I don't want you to fall."

He leaned down, breathing heavily, his face in hers. "What does it matter, if I fall? Who cares if I fall? Rose is dead, and all you can worry about is your own peace of mind. You're selfish, River Song," he added almost childishly, "You're selfish."

She took a couple more steps back, gathered a deep breath and said, "I would care, if you fell. We all would. You're the selfish one, focused on your own love, which-" her voice gathered strength here "-I'd like to mention that you destroyed yourself, along with her universe! You're... a bloody idiot, you are! It's your fault she's dead! Why can't you see you're own mistakes?"

He reared up, as though about to scream her into the ground, and then stopped, stepping back with a hurt expression of realization. They both looked at each other, breathing heavily with anger, and he whispered, "There's no changing them now, is there?"

Without another word, the Doctor stalked back to the TARDIS, everyone watching him go in shock.

* * *

><p>Maybe I'll even get a third in today. -.0<p> 


	20. Chapter 20 Halm Suur

Yay! Three in one day!

For anyone interested, Lost Companions is now on Deviantart! You can check me out on there (for whatever reason) under the name ~SailorKasterborous.

I'm also naming this a no Lurker chapter!

* * *

><p>It floated there, in the endless darkness, for much time. The Void holds no sense of time, so it was impossible to know how long, but It was certain that It had been there for an eternity. It lived in pleasure, alone in the endless Void, and if It was capable of emotion, It would have enjoyed itself.<p>

But then it came.

At first It did not understand. It felt something, tugging at It's nonexistent mind, weaving it's way into It's head. It was not harsh, nor cruel, but it was firm and demanding, and it pulled at It's head, whispering to It, saying, "Rose."

If It had a mouth, It would have frowned. "Rose," It called back.

"Rose," It hissed incessantly in reply. "Come, Rose."

It's frown deepened. "Rose?" The word seemed to touch something in It's mind, pulling at it, a long-lost memory that somehow seemed important.

"Rose," the voice repeatedly firmly. And then, "Rose Tyler."

Again, a stirring. It felt something in It's head, something that made It certain these words should mean something. "What do you want?"

"Rose. Come, Rose."

If It had eyebrows, it would have narrowed them then, thinking hard, digging deep into It's mind. "Who is Rose?"

"Rose Tyler. Come."

It blew up then, in It's mind. It felt it explode outward; memories, which had been found and unlocked by this voice. Words and thoughts, emotions and senses, trapped by the Void, were suddenly brought to light. Things that were not It's, and at the same time were, fell into It's metaphorical lap. It was blown back by the sudden onslaught, the return of everything.

"Rose," She gasped, realizing the endless no anything around her. "My God, I'm in the Void."

"_Rose_," The voice hissed, warm and welcoming, and then mentally grabbed her, pulled her, forcing her to follow.

Rose cried out, sound lost in the emptiness, and resisted, but there was no fighting. The voice ripped at her mind and dragged her through space.

* * *

><p>River had wanted to know, definitely, but not like this.<p>

Oh, how curious she'd been about the mysterious second timer the Doctor had kept hidden away. How interested she was in what it said. But now that she knew, she wanted to take it all back. She wanted Rose's home to still exist, and for that blasted timer to have never even crossed her mind.

And how much interest she'd had in that abyss! She wanted to take that back, too. If she could, she would destroy the abyss, and bring Rose back, and make her and the Doctor happy again, but she couldn't. And for whatever reason, River was definitely certain this was her fault.

She'd shown interest in the abyss and timer, and she'd gotten Rose involved in it. If she hadn't done that, the Doctor might never have told Rose of her home's fate. And then she would have lived.

All of them except the Doctor were sitting where he'd left them, slightly away from the abyss, toying with the dirt on the ground like kids. Everyone was strangely quiet and disconnected: the pain of what had happened was still sinking in. No one had anything to say that wouldn't fire up the others or make them sad.

Much time passed before the Doctor came out of the TARDIS and crossed the dark red ground to them. It was a long walk and they were given much time to track his progress, but no one showed much interest. They were all put off in their sadness.

He reached them, took one look at River, and sat down. "I guess you all aren't coming back in."

"No," Amy murmured. "We're just sitting here and... thinking."

"Yeah," Rory added without conviction.

"She's dead," Martha said, sounding aghast. "She bloody killed herself. She really had to believe that there was nothing left here for her..." she shook her head. "It's my fault. I was going to talk to her earlier, but I couldn't find her. If I'd gone looking, I might have been able to stop her and..."

"It's not your fault," River said quietly. "You were sick. There was nothing you could have done."

They all lapsed into silence again.

* * *

><p>Martha heard it first.<p>

Low and unnatural, a guttural, piercing howl that shuddered across the landscape and to where they sat. "What was that?" she asked, raising her head.

"What-" The Doctor started, but stopped as it sounded again and he too heard it. "Oh no, that's bad, very bad. We should get back to the TARDIS _right now_."

He stood and began running across the hard red ground, and everyone followed, struggling to keep up with his long strides. The howl sounded several more times as they ran, until suddenly, from up over the bleeding ground, a massive, fiery red hound stalked up to the TARDIS, about half the size of the machine itself.

The Doctor stopped almost instantly and groaned. "Oh no, that's bad, so very, very bad."

"What is it?" Amy hissed.

"A Halm Suur," he replied. "In your language that directly translates to Magma Wolf. It's basically a giant dog made of fire."

"And what's so bad about that?" she asked.

Rory looked at her. "Amy? A dog made out of fire? That's pretty bad."

"Thank you Rory," the Doctor said, "And not to mention they're very territorial. If we leave right now, he'll probably destroy the TARDIS. If we stay, he'll destroy us."

"What do we do?" Martha asked.

"I don't know," he said, watching the Halm Suur sniff the TARDIS. "But it's very important that we don't-"

The creature raised its flaming red head to look at them.

"-Attract attention to ourselves."

"Nice doggie," River mused quietly.

The creature emitted a low, feral growl and padded slowly up to them, it's imposing height only a head short than the Doctor. It glared at him, smoke snorting from its nostrils, and let loose an angry snarl that set everyone's teeth on edge.

"I don't suppose he's saying hi," Rory said weakly.

"No," The Doctor replied. "And things are very, very bad right now, because none of us have a weapon and River, don't even think about it because guns don't work on these fellows."

River lowered her gun, frowning.

"Also, my sonic won't have much of an effect, and Halm Suurs are animals, so he's running on instinct."

"Which means we can't negotiate," Amy finished.

"Exactly," He glanced back at them for a second, quickly turning back to the wolf. "Also, if you will note his size, be aware that running is pointless and will only grant you a quicker death."

"So what do we do?" Martha asked.

The Doctor swallowed, sent them another look and said, "Die."

The wolf lowered the front of his body, raising his haunches in preparation to pounce. It pulled back a glistening pair of lips, revealing jagged rows of sharp teeth as long as daggers, and appearing to be made entirely of obsidian. Its flaming orange eyes focused on the Doctor, targeting him, and he let loose a terrifying growl.

Before the creature could pounce, however, there was a violent flash of purple to its left, and Rose Tyler appeared in that place, brandishing a massive purple sword strapped to her right arm, a rock-like purple brace around her left wrist. She swung the sword, successfully decapitating the wolf, and let out a cry of triumph as thick red blood covered the already-red stones.

As the Halm Suur fell, she turned to them and asked, "You like the new look?"

* * *

><p>For anyone wondering, It's pronounced "Halm Sure."<p> 


	21. Chapter 21 The Heat Rises

Yay! Looks like this might be another multiple chapter day!

It appears that I might have been confusing in the last one - I had a person mistake Rose's brace for a shield. Think more under the lines of wristwatch/bracelet.

Also, a mysterious anonymous reviewer asked for a link to my Deviantart. REQUEST ACCEPTED! .com/

I'd like to take this moment to say how much I love you guys. I checked my Email this morning to find I had 13 new reviews, after less than ten hours. That's like, awesome. The only reason I keep writing this is you guys - without fans, I'd lose interest.

Also, some of you might have noticed that I changed the name to the last chapter. This is because I'm considering writing a sequel, and If I do I'd like to name it Void Dance. Tell me what you would think about having a sequel.

* * *

><p>No one answered Rose's question - instead they stared open-mouthed at her smiling figure. The dark purple blade strapped to her lower arm glinted brightly, reflecting the red around it, and the Halm Suur's blood along its edge slid off with an unnatural grace. Once it became apparent that she wasn't going to get a reply, Rose sighed. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped suddenly, lifting her hand to look at the brace around her wrist. "Damn-" she frowned, and disappeared in a loud flash of purple.<p>

There was silence for a long moment, then Rory said, "What the hell?"

The Doctor turned to them, his expression fierce. "Listen to me, that was a fake. That was _not_ the real Rose Tyler. Rose Tyler is gone."

"What was the purple?" Amy asked.

"It could have been anything, maybe dangerous," he said, staring at the place where the fake Rose had been. "We should be on guard."

Rory took a glance at the smoking remains of the Halm Suur. "Sure was an impressive kill."

"Don't touch it," The Doctor warned him quickly, though Rory had no intention to. "They're made of fire. You don't want to mess with that."

Everyone fell silent, thoughts on the exciting events that had just occurred.

"What if it _was_ her?" River asked bluntly.

"And if that's not her, then what was it?" Amy added.

"I don't know what it was," he replied. "But the real Rose is in the Void. There's no coming back from that."

"If it's not Rose then it wouldn't have just saved our lives like that, would it?" Rory challenged.

"I _don't know_ yet," He said, staring at the ground with a troubled expression. "But it's impossible for that to have been Rose."

"Are you sure, Doctor?" Amy took a step forward, seeing the strain on his face.

"Rose is dead," he murmured quietly.

"Doctor," Martha said slowly. "What if-" She was cut off as another purple explosion happened off to their left, and Rose stood in its place, furiously punching buttons in the cuff around her wrist.

"I think-" she said. "Dammit, no, that's not-" she disappeared in another flush of purple.

Everyone looked at the Doctor in confusion.

"Illusion!" He cried.

Another purple flash, and Rose reappeared, this time directly in front of the Doctor. She was focused on her brace for some time, but finally she looked up with a self-satisfied sigh.

"See?" she said. "Third time's the charm."

The Doctor instantly sonicked her, looking at the results with an almost angry expression. He paced around her as he spoke. "Comes up as human. Whatever it is, it's very convincing."

"Ganger?" Amy suggested.

"No, that would've been in the results." He stopped suddenly and scanned her blade, frowning at the results. "Void," he said to her.

"Yeah?" she said.

"Void," he looked at the blade. "It's made of Void, and-" he paused, scanning the cuff. "They're both made of Void."

"What do you mean?" Rory said. "You can't _make_ something out of the Void, can you?"

"I don't come up with the rules, Rory," he stepped back from Rose. "Who are you?"

"Rose Tyler," she huffed, sounding confused.

"No, you're not. Rose is dead."

She made a face, looking around. "Nope, I'm right here."

"You fell into the _Void_," he protested.

"And I got out," she finished.

"How?" River asked, voicing the Doctor's thoughts.

Rose's eyes flicked to the ground. "Long story."

"We have time," River said.

"Maybe we should get back to the TARDIS," she suggested.

"Not until you tell me," The Doctor said, tone dangerous. "Why I should believe you're not a fake."

"Look at me!" she exclaimed. "I'm Rose! I... I..."

"_Why should I believe you_?" he cried, glaring at her. "_Why should I believe for even a second that Rose isn't dead_?"

"I survived, Doctor," she said quietly, expression bleak. "There was... I was in the Void, and it was... it came, this...this..."

Martha took a step towards Rose, but the Doctor shot her a glance, stopping her. "Tell me," he said. "Prove it to me."

She looked down. "I can't."

"Why not?" Amy asked, trying to meet her wide brown eyes.

"It's not..." she breathed in sharply, looking weak. "You can't know."

"That is enough," a delicate-sounding voice rapped sharply behind them. "I tire of waiting."

They turned to see a second Rose blocking their way to the TARDIS.

* * *

><p>:D<p>

Wow, I really am bad with the cliffies.


	22. Chapter 22 The Time Vortex

I really like this one, because it's fun and unpredictable.

Heheheheh.

* * *

><p>It was Rose, and yet it wasn't.<p>

She was wearing a flowing, short, pure white dress that accentuated her figure. Her long blonde hair, normally down, was in a detailed, twisted bun in the back of her head. She wore no jewelry or shoes, and her toes dug into the dirt. Her entire presence was clean and sharp, as though she had just taken a shower and dressed for a party. Things were off, however. If you were to look at her out of the corner of your eye, you would see it – a glittering haze of gold that surrounded her person. And, she had no pupils or whites in her eyes – they were nothing but glowing golden orbs.

"Alright," The Doctor said. "I haven't the faintest what _this_ is," he pointed at the Rose with the Void blade, who was looking very confused herself. "But I have no doubts that you are _definitely_ not Rose."

"I am not," she stated in a trilling, sing-song voice that was firm and demanding, yet gentle and womanly.

"Who are you then, and why do you look like Rose?" Amy asked.

Turning her head in an almost hawk-like way, she focused on Amy. "This Rose, is she not beautiful? How deep and sensual her mind was, filled with many crevices and deep pockets of thought. She was so intelligent. I keep her shape, because I miss her so much. My last shape was a raven-haired girl, with piercing black eyes. She was filled with life and happiness, but not as intelligent as this Rose. Oh, how I miss being Rose."

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked. "Although, I think I can guess."

"Bad Wolf," the girl said.

"I thought so," he nodded grimly. "I assume you're the one who teleported them to the TARDIS."

"I am," she said, sounding pleased with his deducting. The glowing nebula of gold in her eyes seemed to flare. "I have waited long until the time to reveal myself."

"But wait," Martha said. "It's only been about three days. That's not very long."

"Time travel, Martha," the Doctor said.

Bad Wolf nodded. "I am the Time Vortex. I am time itself. I waited long, finding the proper place in the Doctor's time line to send you all to him."

"But why did you need them with him?" Rory asked.

She turned her stunning gaze to him, head swiveling unnaturally. "I am learning of his ways. I seek to know why you all travel with him. What is your purpose? What is your attraction to him?"

"Why does it matter?" The Doctor asked warily.

"I must know," she hissed. "I must understand how it is that you survive."

"Oh, I see," he said. "You think the reason I've lived so long is because of my companions."

She stared at him. "You are an anomaly. You are impossible. You live endlessly, and refuse to perish."

"I'm a Timelord," he replied. "We do that."

She took a single step forward, golden eyes narrowed. "You are the last of your kind, yet you persist. I must understand why. I am Bad Wolf. I must know all secrets of the universe."

"And if you can't figure it out?"

"Then you must be destroyed."

He crossed his arms, glaring at her. "Now that's not very fair. You may be the Time Vortex, but you don't control everything. Not even _you_ can know everything. _No one_ can know everything."

She raised her head, eyes sparking fiercely. "I am Bad Wolf. I destroy, I create. I can know whatever I wish to, and I can remove what refuses me."

"You keep plenty of secrets from us," he said calmly. "Why can't I keep one from you?"

"Because I must know all," she said. Her voice was flat and straight, and yet it had the same effect it would've had if she'd screamed.

"I already told you, no one can know all," he said.

"Wait a minute, I'm a bit lost here," Amy said. "What she's saying is that she once... lived inside of Rose, and because of that noticed you and your secrets, and now she wants to kill you over them?"

"More or less," The Doctor replied, not taking his eyes off of Bad Wolf.

"How can she kill you?" Rory spluttered. "She's just a girl in a dress!"

"Rory," he said, looking away from Bad Wolf to frown at him. "Follow the conversation! She's the Time Vortex."

"And you're a Time_lord_." he shot back. "You could win, couldn't you?"

He turned slowly back to Bad Wolf, ignoring Rory and speaking to her. "You've watched me throughout history, haven't you? Trying to find the right moment? You've seen what I can do. Why do you want to destroy that?"

"I do not _want_ to destroy you. But I will if you do not cooperate." She cocked her head to one side in a bird-like way, studying him.

"And what are you going to do with that information?"

She blinked, looking affronted, as though she had thought it was obvious. "I will rule all of time and space."

"See," the Doctor said, shaking a finger. "I can't allow that. Because even though you're the Time Vortex, your own knowledge has worn you down. You're not as wise as you once were. If I tell you my secrets, and you use them to rule everything, then you'll end up destroying everything."

Her eyes flared. "Only I hold the power to see the future. You can not say what will happen."

"Ah, but I've been living for almost 910 years now. I've gotten good at guessing."

"Doctor," Martha said in a low voice. "Are you going to refuse her? Won't she..."

"Yes, she will." he said. "I'm working on it."

"Careful," Rose warned, and he instantly glared at her.

"I'll deal with you later," he said. "Stay out of this."

"She has a point, Doctor," River murmured. "Don't be too rash."

His jaw tightened, and he sent her a glance too. "I'd rather die than let her destroy all of time and space."

"Will you share your secrets?" Bad Wolf asked, staring at him down the bridge of her nose.

"No," he said flatly.

"Then you will be destroyed, and your companions and machine too, so that you shall be nothing but a weak memory in the heads of the ignorant." She raised her hand, and a powerful golden glow began to grow in the center of her palm, humming softly.

"Doctor?" Amy said, sounding panicked.

"No plan for this one, Pond," he said, unnaturally calm.

"Dammit!" She yelled. "I didn't travel through time and space with you to die in a cave millions of feet below the surface of a moon!"

He looked at her. "Big sentence for someone about to die."

"She does that, if you hadn't noticed," Rory said, also sounding panicked.

Rose was looking at her cuff. "I could get away," she said quietly. "I could leave, and live."

The Doctor looked at her, and time seemed to freeze. "But you won't, will you?"

She shook her head, not looking at him. "No, I won't."

His lips parted in a silent gasp. "Rose."

Bad Wolf's eyes were now glowing fiercely, and a hailstorm of gold had erupted behind her. Her hand was a bomb of glittering golden sparks. "Goodbye," she said.

A lump of red bloomed in the middle of her neck as a stalactite was shoved through it. Her lips parted, and blood flowed from them. She fell, exploding into gold dust on contact with the ground, leaving nothing but the bloodied stalactite behind.

Donna Noble stared at the fallen stalactite on the ground. "Did I kill her?" She asked, looking up.

* * *

><p>LOLOL Me and my cliffies.<p> 


	23. Chapter 23 Teleporting

Awh yeah. I'm gonna attempt to get one more chapter tonight. Let's see if I can pull it off.

Also, I noticed some people got a bit confused - I think my explination made little sense.

The Rose with the Void weapon is the real, legit Rose. The Bad Wolf Rose isn't even Rose at all - it's Bad Wolf (aka the Time Vortex) who has taken Rose's shape.

* * *

><p>"No," the Doctor said, not batting an eye at Donna's appearance. "But you subdued her. She wasn't expecting that. It will take her some time to recuperate before she returns."<p>

"Hi Donna," Martha said.

Her gaze switched between them and the blood-soaked stalactite. "What? No applaud for that entrance?"

"I thought it was rather good," Rose said. "Mine was better though."

"What? You were gone? How much did I miss?"

"A lot," Amy said, looking very relieved to not be dead.

"Well never mind that," she gave the stalactite one more forlorn glance. "I suppose it's pointless to say that I found our enemy."

"Yes," River agreed. "Although we'd all like to know how, exactly."

Donna hesitated, reluctant to start out by saying, "I got lost." Finally she said, "I was walking around in the caverns here and... lost my way. I made it to a cave, and found water there, which-" she laughed softly. "-was bloody nice. And there was this orange light there, so I looked up to the wall and saw... well, it said 'Bad Wolf.' And the words were glowing, and had power in them, I guess, because seeing them made me realize what was going on. So made my way back and saw she'd already found you, and I got a fallen stalactite and..." she trailed off.

The Doctor nodded. "Well done, Donna. We should get back in the TARDIS."

"Good idea, before she shows up again," Rory said.

Once they were all inside again, the Doctor firmly locked the door and turned to all of them crowded around the console. "Right, we have twenty-four hours at most. When she comes back, she will be angry, very angry, and she won't mess around when it comes to killing us. We won't get a second chance."

"Why don't we leave?" Martha asked. "We have no reason to stay here anymore."

"I'd love to, except we can't," he said. "She's angry now. We leave, and she'll destroy everything in her path – entire civilizations – to get to us. We'd cause the genocide of thousands of races if we run."

"Damn," Rory said.

"So what do we do? How are we going to live?" Amy asked.

"I don't know yet," he replied grimly.

"Well we've got some time, even if it's not much," Donna said. "So what did I miss?"

The group shared uncomfortable glances, not sure who should tell her about what had happened to Rose. Eventually their gazes settled on her, and she sighed.

"There was some... trouble, Donna," she said quietly. "Some things happened on my universe, and... they died. So I... jumped the abyss and it led to the Void, and... I eventually got back here."

"That probably explains the..." she gestured to the blade and cuff.

"Yes," Rose nodded solemnly.

"I'm sorry for you," Donna said with a bow of her head and a sad look.

"Thank you," she returned quietly.

"Wait," Amy paused. "How do we know if this is the actual Rose? Doctor?"

He looked at her and said, "I've worked that out. You've no need to worry – this is the real Rose."

"Well that's good," Rory said. "But what do we do now?"

"I suggest nothing," the Doctor replied. "There isn't much we currently can do."

"I'm going to bed," Amy grumbled. "Rory?"

"I'll hang out here for a bit," he said.

As she went down the spiral staircase, Donna said, "Martha? Mind a chat? I'd like some more detail on what I missed."

"Of course," Martha replied, and the two of them went up to their room.

"I myself am going to work on a solution for our Bad Wolf problem," The Doctor said, clapping his hands together.

"I'll help?" River asked, and he nodded, the two of them heading up to the office above the console room.

* * *

><p>Rose watched everyone go in silence, head clouded with fuzzy thoughts. She turned to see Rory still there, looking awkward and out of place.<p>

"Hi," he said.

She smiled, hoping to quell his nervousness. "Hi."

He frowned slightly, and looked down. "You died."

Her smile faded. "No, I didn't, I just..."

"But..." he seemed to be struggling with something. "When you fell, the Doctor said that no one could come back from the Void. How is it that you're here?"

"They... There was..." she sighed. "I can't explain it."

He was quiet, and looked away, then up to her wrist. "What is it? Why is it purple? And the blade, too."

"Well, it's like the Doctor said," she replied. "It's made of the Void, and the Void is sort of this purplish color."

"How do you mean, made of the Void?"

"It's... It's like... Here, let me show you."

She reached up with her left hand and undid the straps around her forearm. There were three straps – one by her elbow, one around her wrist, and one in between those two. In front of her hand was a dark purple handle that she could grip during battle. When the straps were removed, she gripped this to hold it as she placed it on a clean spot on the console. Making sure Rory was watching, she let go, and the moment her skin lost contact with the blade, it disappeared in a flush of purple.

"What-" he exclaimed. "Why did it do that?"

"It can only exist here when I have it," Rose replied.

"Where did it go?"

"The Void," she said flatly.

"Can you get it back?"

"Yes," she said, and turned her attention to the cuff around her wrist. She pressed a few buttons on it, shot him a glance, and then pressed another button, disappearing. Rory gasped inwardly, and waited in silence. It didn't take long – after a few seconds she reappeared, blade once again strapped onto her arm.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

"This," she raised her hand, indicating the purple cuff. "It let's me teleport to the Void."

"To retrieve the blade?"

"Among other things," she said with a shrug.

Rory wanted to ask more, but he couldn't make himself push her further. He swallowed, watching Rose, seeing the sadness etched into her face, the pain of things that she couldn't bring herself to mention. "It's getting late," he said finally.

"Yeah," she murmured, looking up to the door behind which River and the Doctor lay. "Listen, Rory, I'm going to go... rest. I'll see you later."

"Sure," he said, watching her go. As she disappeared up the stairs, he shook his head thoughtfully. What had happened to her? Sighing, he turned and headed down the stairs to his and Amy's room.

* * *

><p>WOOT! Back to writing, let's do it!<p> 


	24. Chapter 24 Wild Touch

Okay, leaving you guys with one whole day without a chapter is understandable. But this? What has it been, like, 5 days? This is just obscene. I've disgusted myself. I have no decent excuse.

This chapter, I believe, will make up for it. It's the longest one yet.

Also, haven't seen Night Terrors yet. **If any of you know of a website I can watch it on that doesn't require a download, I would be eternally grateful if you sent it to me.**

* * *

><p>Rose gazed, deep in thought, at the fantastic architecture of the TARDIS. It had been at least two hours since her talk with Rory – she had wandered among a few various floors of the ship, marveling at some of the things on board. Artifacts of alien technology, remains of evil specimens, pieces from ancient histories. She wondered if the Doctor had been present for the collection of all of this, or if it had already been cluttered before his arrival. There was no way of knowing if even he himself was aware of everything on board.<p>

Had this been a planet, the moon would have risen already – the TARDIS had gone into nighttime mode. In the dim lighting, she hadn't seen him approach before he spoke. "Rose Tyler."

She spun, squinting in the dark. "Doctor?"

"Hello." He stepped forward, into the glow of one of the ship's lights.

She blinked in surprise, then said, "Did you and River have any luck?"

"No," he said, leaning against the side of the hallway they were standing in. "But it doesn't matter. We'll straighten in up eventually."

She nodded, staring at the floor. They were quiet for some time, until the Doctor spoke up. "So I think I have it figured out."

"What?"

"How you got back from the Void," he replied.

Her heart skipped a beat. "H-How, then?"

"Bad Wolf saved you," he said calmly. "The teleport link, the one that returned you to the TARDIS if you got too far from me. It tried to kick in, but struggled to reach you through the pull of the Void. Finally, it found you in there, and managed to pull you back."

He met her eyes.

"But the Void fought.

"By this point, you had returned to yourself – you were aware of the situation and knew what was happening. The fight for you went on and on, and you were helpless. Finally, there was a turn in the battle, and you realized that inevitably the Void would win. So you did the only thing you could."

"What?" Rose said, hearing the lack of emotion in her voice.

"You bargained with the Void. You made a deal with it, so that you could survive and return to the TARDIS." He shook his head. "You shouldn't have done that."

She frowned and said, with little fight, "What was I supposed to do? It was that, or an eternity in the Void."

"I'm not saying you could have done better," he replied, looking away. "But making a deal with the Void is a very, very foolish thing to do."

They were both quiet for some time. Rose looked sadly at the floor. "What was your deal?" he finally asked.

She glared at the dimly-lit TARDIS lights on the other side of the hallway in front of them. "It was simple. The Void just wants to keep tabs on me."

"So they gave you a sword and bracelet?" he asked, glancing at the accused objects.

"They... taught me how to manipulate the Void," she murmured quietly.

"How long were you there?"

"What do you mean?" she asked slowly.

He gave her a look, an almost disappointed one. "Come on, Rose. I know that time doesn't exist in the Void. I know you didn't necessarily stay there for the same amount of time that you were gone for us."

She hesitated, looking away. "Grand total," he said.

"One year, seven months and three days," she managed finally.

She saw him lower his gaze out of the corner of her eye. "You counted."

Rose managed a shaky laugh. "Course I did. It wasn't totally bad there, but... I missed the real world."

"Course you did."

"Yeah. Course I did."

She found moderate humor in the situation, but, looking up, saw his cold, hard expression, devoid of happiness, and the smile was wiped from her face. She hadn't realized how seriously he was taking this. "Hey," she said, straightening up.

He didn't look at her. His gaze was fixed on the other side of the wall away from them, expression unreadable. "You jumped," he said it in an observant tone, the way someone might have said, "You're blonde."

It felt to Rose like the air had been sucked from the room. She could hardly breathe, heart pounding and head wracked with hundreds of different emotions. She looked at everything except him, despite the fact that she was assuming he wasn't watching her. "I... yeah, I did."

She saw his jaw tense, as though he had something horribly unpleasant in his mouth and was trying to hide it. "Why?"

"Why do you think?" she fired up, affronted by how blunt he was being.

His eyebrows rose, expression bleak. "I had no other choice. There was no other way to do things."

"You could have told me," she shot back. "I could have spent my last days happy, with the other Doctor, instead of being alone here after he died, far from me."

"You still would have been sent here," he still wasn't looking at her. "You still would have lived, and he still would have died."

"But he would have been able to tell me how he was feeling, that he could feel the world dying. His death would have been less painful for him – he could have shared the pain with me."

His face contorted tortuously, and the Doctor said three words Rose never thought he would ever say. "I wasn't thinking."

She let off a small, soft huff, not quite believing him. "Why? Why weren't you thinking?"

His eyes narrowed, and she thought he looked like he was considering how much to say. "It was... complicated. More of a price this time 'round."

"What you mean to say," she said slowly. "Was you didn't tell me because you were being selfish. You were afraid of losing me."

He was quiet for a second too long. "Yes."

Rose knew she should be angry at him for being so stupid, so foolish, so _inconsiderate_, but she couldn't be. The look on his face hurt her to see. He looked like an injured puppy, beaten for chewing up its owner's best shoes. Torture and hurt, regret and guilt spammed his features. Emotions that Rose had long debated whether he was capable of or not lay as clear as day on his face, his cards laid out on the table for all to see. She should be _angry. Fuming_. But she wasn't.

"Doctor," Rose, for a quick second, thought she had something good to say, but her words trailed off to nothing.

Far above them, in some long-forgotten, abandoned chamber of the TARDIS, an eerie, low-pitch howl moaned in a disconsolate tone, the sound carrying like wildfire across the open halls of the ship. Whether there was some troubling work being done up there, or something had gotten loose only to die in the confusing maze of the ship, or perhaps a creature had sensed the tension downstairs and knew that a sad, scene-fitting noise was absolutely necessary at that moment, we will never know.

The Doctor glanced up. "Hmm," he said.

"Hmm," Rose agreed.

He turned, facing her, but still not meeting her eyes. He pursed his lips, expression not unlike the one a person might have after being told that they'd forgotten to pay their taxes, or that their plumbing was broken. It was very unfitting of the current situation.

"Look at us," she said quietly. "Look at what we put ourselves through."

He smiled. "It would be so easy to avoid, wouldn't it?"

"Too easy," she nodded.

His smile stayed for a fraction of a second longer, then faded, turning serious again. The look in his pale green eyes was dark. "I'm sorry."

Rose looked – _really looked_ – at the Doctor in front of her. There was no doubting it – he had changed a lot since the first time they'd met. During their time together, he would have expected her to understand when he was sorry or not. Now, he was actually telling her. Granted, they'd never come across a mistake of his this serious, or grave, but that didn't really matter to her at the moment. She felt, for one of the first times in her life, like things might actually be okay. It was like the aftermath of a hurricane – looking onto the streets of your neighborhood, and seeing everything you'd ever loved or owned in ruins. But then your mother, or your sister, or whomever you'd prefer, comes up and loops their hand into yours and you know it's going to be alright. Rose didn't know what to say.

She spend some seconds struggling with her emotions in silence, but by the Doctor's expression it became apparent that the look on her face told him everything he needed. He took one step forward, destroying the distance between them, leaned forward and undid the straps on her weapon. It fell, dissipating into nothing before it could hit the ground. Then he bent down and kissed her.

She started in surprise, and very nearly jerked away from him before remembering who it was that was kissing her and how very uncommon it was for him to do this kind of thing. Then she kissed him back.

I wouldn't want to waste your time with irritating soliloquies or unnecessary melodramas, because kissing really isn't as great or magical as everyone says it is. But, all things considered, this is the Doctor, and he's a bloody Timelord who's seen and done more than should be physically possible, so you better believe that his kisses are worth anything in the world, and filled with melodrama, so damn right I'm going to waste your time with what then proceeded to go through Rose's head.

At first it was like any other kiss. Rose had kissed Mickey plenty of times back when they'd been dating, and his kisses were sweet and loving, and this was exactly what she got with the Doctor. But, as he grabbed her by the arms and pulled her closer to him, she felt things change. It was like new doors had opened for her. His lips were as sweet as honey against hers, and she shivered with the rough, raw, powerful feel of them. He looked human, he felt human... but his kiss was pure Timelord.

She felt him, innocent against her, letting her control the kiss, to feel and manipulate the rhythm they were sharing. He offered her no resistance, and she gave him her all in return, feeling like a silly child when she hoped he didn't find her a bad kisser. He was sweet as hell – everything you'd imagine him to be like from staring at his face entirely too much, plus more. Had either of them been aware of the amount of fangirls they had acquired, they both would have been paying more attention to the good results they had to brag about.

The kiss went on for longer than either could remember – but again, this is a small detail I won't bother you with. When their lips finally parted, it was the Doctor pulling away. He smiled at her – I won't say dreamily, because that word just doesn't work with him, but it was indeed very dreamy. Then he walked, slow and confident, away from her in the vague direction of the console room.

Do you know that Disney movie, _Hercules_? If you do, then I'm sure you're probably aware of the scene when Meg sings "I won't say I'm in love," where she repeatedly attempts and fails to convince the audience that she isn't in love with Hercules. Quite obviously, this scene doesn't fit what was going on in Rose's head at all, but I feel like I could mention it because the situation – girl sitting by herself after dramatic love scene – seems to fit pretty well.

Rose watched, lips slightly parted and tingling in a friendly way, as he walked off. Her head was reeling, but this time in a good way. Her heart was also thumping, but this was good for once too. His kiss had left her wild and dizzy, but also madly invigorated – she wanted to run, or dance, or go do something immensely stupid just for the sake of doing it.

She recalled the kisses – generally short ones – that they'd shared in the past, and couldn't remember a single one he'd given her just for the sake of giving it. Sure, there were the occasional pecks on the cheek, but nothing like that, not unless he had a reason. He never kissed without a reason.

And sure, maybe in this situation guilt had been driving it, but it hadn't felt like a guilty kiss in anyway whatsoever. It was just a kiss. A (did she dare say it?) loving kiss.

Rose couldn't imagine going and doing anything normal after that, least of all sleeping. Not even exploring the fascinating TARDIS would please her wild mood. She leaned against the side of the wall and laughed giddily, feeling for the first time in a long time that things might get fun again.

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><p>My writing style started experimenting with itself about halfway through this.<p>

Also, I apologize - I have Hercules on the brain. I think I'll try to watch it tonight. **Or Doctor Who if anyone happens to send me a link! :D**


	25. Chapter 25 Dream Donna

GOD, I am just SLACKING.

I'll try to get back to a normal posting rhythm at some point - as for now, work with me.

I like this chapter. I made me like Donna more, which I didn't know was possible.

Also, to **Lissical**, thanks for being massively awesome and getting me a link to Night Terrors. You also scared me slightly, because I searched Megavideo and couldn't find it there.

I also know that a bunch of you also sent me some links and suggestions, so thank you. Lissical just got there first.

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><p>While Rose was wandering the TARDIS, not long before the Doctor showed up, Donna's stomach was clenching, head whirling with emotions as she stared blankly at the door to her and Martha's room. <em>Suicide<em>. The thought of anyone – especially Rose – going to this level baffled her. She and Martha were sitting cross-legged on her bed, facing each other. Martha had just told her the story of what had happened while she was gone, in much more detail than what she'd received in the console room. She just couldn't take it all in.

"But what about you?" Martha asked after a pause.

She looked back to the younger girl, and it took her awhile to return to the present. "Sorry, just thinking," she murmured. "What?"

She didn't seem to mind. "When you were gone. You told us all about it, but... was there more?"

"Well, not really, no, but..." she shook her head, scoffing softly. "I was hoping the Doctor would've been interested, but..."

"What?" If he wouldn't give her audience, it was apparent that Martha would – she was leaning forward, looking interested.

Donna swallowed, considering her reply carefully. "When I was in that cave that I talked about, and I saw that light – the yellow one, remember? It bounced off the walls and made them glow orange – Well... It was weird, but it was like that light made me... I dunno, smarter."

"How do you mean?" Martha asked.

"It was like... I saw it, and I knew what was going on. I knew that the Time Vortex was here, and I knew _exactly _where the TARDIS was, and I could pinpoint exactly where each of you were standing, and..." She stopped, and her face blanched, and she became very quiet.

Martha frowned and said, "What is it?" Donna's face was so pale now, that it created an eerie and ghost-like contrast against her fiery red hair – she'd didn't like it, and wanted the color to return to her normally lively face. Looking at how off she was made the sick girl's headache flare wildly.

She saw Donna's jaw clench. "I remember... That I knew something was wrong. I knew where Rose was, and instinctively I searched further for her than the rest of you because I could tell something wasn't right." Her face went a shade lighter. "And I _found_ her. And she was... I can't even describe it. It was so _dark_, and deathly quiet, and there was just... _nothing_, Martha. Bloody nothing. Just the black, and the silence, like a veil over everything, and it stole the life and breath out of the very air. It was like it _knew_ I was watching. It _felt_ me, Martha, and it grabbed me, and for a moment-"

She stopped dead. It looked to Martha like she was a video that someone had paused.

"For a moment, Martha, I was there with Rose."

"How so?" Martha heard the tremor in her own voice.

Donna raised her head, and it seemed to Martha like it took a long time for her eyes to lock on her. "It was... Like I _was_ Rose, for a brief second. I could feel her fear, and her realization that she wasn't dead, and how... how _scared_ she was, Martha. And... and I felt the Void take her, and I felt her fade away, like she was just a dream. I felt her... leave. And Rose was still there, but it wasn't Rose anymore. It was like the Void had taken everything that ever made her... _her_, and turned it into Void. And then..."

"Then?" Martha's voice was a hoarse whisper.

"Then I was back in the cave. I was me again. The whole thing was over. In fact, I would've forgotten about it if it wasn't for the fact that I had to get back to you. I _did_ forget everything about Rose – I was just so focused on getting back to all of you."

Martha looked down, unable to find the right words. Finally she said, "That's horrid Donna, I'm so sorry."

"No, it's not..." the fiery-haired girl looked down, shaking her head. "It wasn't... I know how bloody wretched that must've been for Rose, and I felt all of that, which _was _horrid, but... I feel like that needed to happen. I feel like... I had to have felt that. I don't know why, but it just seems like it had to happen."

Martha didn't reply immediately. She knew that she would never be able to understand what was going through Donna's head. She had seen and done things that didn't involve Martha, and never would. "I hope you're okay," she said finally, sounding very quiet to her own ears.

Donna didn't address this. Instead, she said, "There's another thing."

"What?"

Her eyes were directed at the bedsheets below them, and her jaw clenched on occasion with stress. "During that time, when I looked at the light and saw all of that... Oh Martha, it's silly."

"I'm sure it's not," she replied, thinking that nothing Donna said could sound silly after all that she'd just heard.

"When I looked at that light, when I learned all of that, and understood so quickly, it was like I was Doctor Donna again. Like I could figure out anything, and understand whatever I wanted to, and do... _anything_."

"Was that what it was like before?"

Her eyebrows narrowed. She took a sudden interest in the frayed edge of the bedsheets. "After the Doctor wiped my mind, it was like my life – the stupid one, where I didn't remember anything – was a dream. And the real one, where I _did_ remember the Doctor..." She looked up. "You were told about when the Master came back, and the Doctor had to regenerate, right?"

Martha nodded.

"Well, I was there, for a bit of it," she looked down again. "And when everyone turned into an image of the Master and I didn't... I started remembering. And my real life came back, for about a minute, and it was like I was watching my fake life, and seeing all of that, and thinking, 'How is it that I forgot all of this? How could I have forgotten everything...'

"And during that minute, I wasn't Doctor Donna-" She laughed weakly "-not at _all_, but I still understood... how I'd forgotten, and what had happened... and then, there was this orange flash and... Back to the dream."

She closed her eyes, very slowly, as though there was something pricking at the edge of her vision. "When I was Doctor Donna, it was just... It's hard to even describe, Martha. It was like I could do anything, like I was anything... like I could take any problem, or any trouble that anyone had, and fix it. I knew the answer to every question, the solution to every equation. _Everything_ in the universe just... _made sense_. And it was scary, too, Martha. I knew everything, and I was afraid of myself. I was afraid I knew too much. I _knew_ I knew too much. No one should know all of that."

"And now?" the other girl asked, her voice a quiet whisper.

"I've forgotten most of what I'd learned now," Donna replied, shaking her head, her expression far away. "I don't regret not remembering. I shouldn't."

"But then earlier... You felt like Doctor Donna again," Martha said.

"Yeah, I did. And, looking back on it, I don't think I like it," she looked up at Martha, and she saw some of the color return to the other girl's face as she smiled weakly. "I'd rather just be Donna. No normal person should know as much as I did before. Being plain old me is better."

Martha returned the smile, secretly relieved that her friend no longer seemed so troubled. "You're alright Donna. No need to feel bad about it."

"I don't," the other replied, but Martha thought she caught a glimmer of something dark in her eyes.

"Maybe you should talk to Rose," Martha suggested, hopeful to change the subject. "Since, you know..."

"Yeah, I've thought about it," Donna no longer sounded so distant or... _not herself_. "But she seems so, I dunno, _past it_, that I'm like, 'Why remind her?' She seems to have recovered."

"I'm not so sure," she replied. "I'd bet she's burying it."

Donna smiled, somewhat to herself. "I'd bet that the Doctor will keep her covered. I know they've been distant with each other, but... somehow, I don't know... Somehow, I think he's gonna make her happy again."

Little did the two of them know, at that exact moment the Doctor had leaned in to kiss Rose.

Martha smiled, looking away as she nodded. "Suppose we should go to bed."

"Yeah," Donna agreed. Martha stood, going to her bed, and the next few minutes were spent in getting ready to sleep. Finally, the two of them were lying in their beds, and Donna flicked out the light, saying, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Martha replied.

Both thought that the other sounded distracted and faraway.

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><p>Yay! I have nothing good to say here.<p> 


	26. Chapter 26 The Unknown

Yay! We are getting closer to the something known as a finale!

Also, **Lissical**, if you happen to have a link to The Girl Who Waited it would be greatly appreciated.

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><p>The next morning, everyone was awoken around the same time by a dull thump. The noise was thick and heavy, and also hollow, like a powerful <em>thwump<em> that sounded alarmingly close.

River proceeded down the stairs, Rose in her wake, and the two of them were soon joined by Martha and Donna. As they reached the landing, they saw the Doctor leaning against the console, looking up at them, Rory and Amy standing behind him and looking uncertain.

"Bad Wolf's here," he said, tone unreadable.

He crossed the room, heading purposefully to the door of the TARDIS and Amy said, "Wait! Won't it be smarter to stay in the TARDIS? It's safe here."

He gave her a dark look, hand on the door. "She's mad now. Nowhere's safe."

With that he walked outside, and River and the others had no choice but to follow.

She was standing about ten feet from the door, still in Rose's shape, in a long, elegant, lemon-yellow gown. Her blonde hair was now down and loose, and whipping in a nonexistent wind, crackling with flaring golden energy. Her eyes still glowed gold, but this time stronger, and brighter, and fiercer. As they walked out, she turned her head in that hawk-like way and stared at the Doctor with an unbridled ferocity.

"You are intelligent to not attempt hiding."

"Thanks," he said, waving at her. "How are you?"

Her eyes flared wildly. "I will not accept sarcasm. Your friend has pushed her luck with that trick she did earlier. You are no longer the only one I am interested in."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

Bad Wolf turned her head slowly, carefully studying each member of the group behind the Doctor. River couldn't stop herself from swallowing nervously. _How the hell is he going to get out of this one?_

She raised her chin. "I still carry great interest in how you continue to live, Timelord. I have studied you for a long time. I have studied those you have been around, and what they have done to you, and what you have done to them. I have watched your adventures with something that lifeforms call 'interest', and I have wondered how you continue to persist, and survive, and I wonder what keeps you alive on this world. It is not just your lifespan, nor your ability to regenerate. There is something in you, Timelord. I want to know what it is."

River felt a ticklish sort of trickle on the back of her neck. She could relate to Bad Wolf. No matter how much time she spent with him, or how much he told her, the big things about him still managed to stay a mystery. Bad Wolf was right in saying he was a survivor – regeneration after regeneration, no hesitation or fear, no worry or stress. He simply lived. River would be lying if she said she wasn't interested in how, or why.

"Some things aren't meant to be told, even to the Time Vortex," he replied to her evenly.

She let out something of a growl, body tensing. "I am all of time itself! I see the future, I control the past. I can read the strength and endurance of your time machine. I can see your lifelines, ticking above your own heads, reaching steadily to their ends. I can tell you where you will go next, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. I can feel the blood pulsing in your veins, the breath escaping your lips, the mechanical pattern of your body, doing its job to keep you alive. If I wished, I could erase your entire time line in a single sigh. I could erase everything you had ever been, or remove your future. I could obliterate this entire moon we stand on from existence, and warp time so that it had never been created. I can see the whole universe's potential, and its evil too." she leaned forward. "What is there for me to not know?"

The Doctor's expression became unreadable. He lowered his head slightly, meeting her burning eyes, and said in a level tone, "The Timelords once ruled all in existence. We kept peace across the galaxy, and kept dark and thieving species from overthrowing the calm. We led a long reign of happiness across all of existence. We even owned _you_. Do you remember that, when we controlled you? The Timelords kept you from destroying your own existence. We kept something like _this_ from happening. You don't understand your own power. We knew that if we let you free to rule time, you would end up destroying it. Of course we had to keep some secrets from you."

She cocked her head, eyes narrowing and the dramatic, flaming pulse in her eyes lulled slightly. "And then you fell. Your race was destroyed."

"I still live," he said, raising his voice. "Which means you still have a master, Bad Wolf! I'm not taking orders from _you_! It's the other way around. You need to understand that _no one_ can know everything."

She raised her head, eyes flaring again, but expression proud and in control. "I have learned, during my times of watching you, to like you, Timelord. Your existence has had a mighty effect on all of time and space. Much of this realm would be in disarray without you. I do not wish to kill you. But I _must understand_. It is important for me to know all secrets of this world. This includes yours. I shall give you a second chance. Tell me what brings you to do what you do, and I shall let you walk free."

River took a deep breath in. From what she knew, it was rare and extremely humbling for the Bad Wolf to give you a second chance. Seeing the Doctor's expression, she knew that he understood this too. _Why doesn't he just tell her? Then again, even _I _don't know this secret, and he's told me everything. This could be big. Life-changing._

"I won't tell you, Bad Wolf. I can't," he shook his head sadly.

She screamed in fury, eyes burning with an unnatural fire that burst from them with ferocity. Her hair was whipped up by an invisible wind, crackling with Time Vortex energy, as though little bolts of golden lightening was weaving through her locks. Her entire body tensed with anger, and a fierce rumble of golden mist snaked around her heels. She screeched at the Doctor, "I give you _one hour_ to reconsider! If your answer is still no, then you will die!"

There was a great whoosh of energy that everyone present felt, and a huge, swirling mass of golden mist began gathering and spinning around Bad Wolf, gaining speed and size, until there was a mighty sucking noise and she disappeared.

"A second chance," River mused aloud. "_And_ an hour. She must really want you alive, Doctor."

"I wonder why," he said, exactly the way someone would say that when they know the answer.

Amy swallowed, her thoughts flying back to a dark day on the beach, and a small girl in an astronaut's suit. Could this have anything to do with that? Bad Wolf said she had observed the Doctor's time line, and that she could see all of their lifespans. How much did she know?

Could this powerful girl, this Time Vortex, know when the Doctor would die? Could she... _change it_?

Amy felt her heart skip a beat, and a giddy soaring feeling raced in her stomach, the way you feel when you get a giddy, impossible hope in your mind, and that wild feeling that it _just might work_. Trying to ignore this thought, to put it off until the right time, she said, "What do we do now?"

"Wait for her to come back," the Doctor replied simply.

"What?" Rose asked. "We're not going to set up a defense, or anything?"

"We could," he said, shrugging. "But it won't do anything. We're lucky to still be alive."

"So we wait," Rory said, somewhat grumpily.

"More or less," he replied.

"You better have some good tricks up your sleeve, Doctor," Martha said.

Donna frowned. "I don't know if anything can stop _her_," she murmured.

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><p>I can't say exactly how many chapters are left, but they're numbered for sure. :D<p> 


	27. Chapter 27 The Opening of the Heart

WOW. I actually posted something.

Sorry guys. I've been a total jerk and ignored you all. But here, to make up for it, something leading up to what is commonly referred to as an "ending."

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><p>The Time Vortex, being the guardian of time and all, was very punctual and showed up exactly sixty minutes after having left the group. There was another loud <em>thump<em> of her teleporting, and again everyone walked out to give her audience. The ferocity still burned in her eyes, but subdued now, like a vicious, hungry tiger held back by nothing but a flimsy metal cage.

"You have been given your hour," she said, her tone firm and flat.

"My answer is still no," the Doctor replied, leaning against the TARDIS calmly.

Her eyes flared. A fierce hailstorm of glittering gold grew and died behind her. "Why? You have lived so long, seen so much. Why chose the foolish path when I offer you freedom?"

The Doctor's companions stood slightly to the side of the TARDIS, watching the scene in silence. Deep in her heart, Rose was horribly afraid. For one of the first times in her life, she didn't entirely trust the Doctor. It didn't seem possible for him to get out of this one.

"Because I know what will happen if I do tell you," he told Bad Wolf. "All hell will break lose. You simply can't know."

Her jaw clenched slightly, and for a moment she fired up again, the burning in her eyes growing, but suddenly she calmed. "Very well. I have given you your chance. Death will now be received by all of you, because of this Timelord's choice."

Although he didn't move, the Doctor raised an eyebrow and seemed to tense slightly. "Why? Why kill us? What does it prove?"

"My power," she said flatly. "What I cannot know, I must remove."

"Then spare them," he said back. "I'm the one who holds the secrets. Let them live."

She was quiet for a moment, and what seemed to be a sad look flitted across her features. "It is no longer an option. I have seen your life. I have seen what spirit you put into your companions. To let them live would be my downfall, and we both know it."

He looked down and shrugged slightly. "Very well."

Rose's heart thudded in her chest, and she felt everyone else beside her tense horribly. She watched as the glow in Bad Wolf's eyes grew fiercer, and she raised her hand, a golden burn sparkling around her and centering in her palm. She could see the power trapped in the Time Vortex's hand. It seemed to ripple out from her skin, hiss around her, tremble in her gaze. It was inescapable; unavoidable.

It reached a terrible intensity. The air around her actually throbbed with the power, and the temperature seemed to increase. They could feel the power aching in her palm, desperate to be freed.

"Goodbye," she said, and a mighty, horrible, terrifying golden-yellow beam escaped her hand, flying at the group.

Several things happened at once.

The first was that Rose's ears were filled with the throbbing, burning thrum of power hurtling at her. She truly believed it would be the last thing she heard. Next, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Doctor snap his fingers, and the door to the TARDIS open. She saw him raise his screwdriver and point it at the console. She heard its gentle, comforting whir, and she watched in shock as the hatch to the heart of the TARDIS flicked open, and the glowing power of Bad Wolf was pulled towards it.

The next thing Rose was aware of was the explosion.

It was like the ground itself was being ripped from its hinges. The world shook fiercely, and she thought she heard someone scream. She felt the heat and power of the explosion that emanated from Bad Wolf – or had it been the TARDIS? Rose could never make up her mind which it was. When she opened her eyes again, figure collapsed between the Doctor, facing away from her, and the TARDIS, she saw that the ground literally had been torn apart. Dry chunks and slabs of red rock were sticking up at odd angles, and crumbling pieces of earth lay in disarray around them. She could see the rest of the group passed out in various places – it was a miracle that she herself was still awake. A thin line of white smoke was hissing from the TARDIS doors, but Rose almost missed this. Her attention was entirely captured by the thick band of golden light coming from out of the doors. The light went all the way to Bad Wolf and was snaked around her middle, pulling her to the TARDIS, towards the open hatch that led to the machine's heart. She was fighting it angrily.

Rose looked up and saw the Doctor above her. He had been terribly damaged by the explosion – light red cuts laced his face and arms, and a dark red soot covered him. His hair was out of place and askew, and his expression was twisted in a tight grimace.

"Give it up," he said to Bad Wolf, seemingly unaware of Rose. "Just let go."

"Do not speak down to me!" she screamed, hands wrapped around the golden-yellow cord, straining against it fiercely. "I am master of all! I will not be controlled!"

"You were never master!" He yelled back, not moving, but voice raised against hers and the burning of the explosion around them. "The Timelords always ruled you! You belong in the Time Vortex! You never should have had the power of thought, or you're own body."

"But I do!" She shouted. "Why can I not keep it? What keeps me from what I want?"

"There are some things that aren't meant to be kept," He replied, voice lowered, and Rose had a sudden feeling that this comment had been directed at more than just Bad Wolf.

The TARDIS raged against Bad Wolf, and burning cinders from the explosion hissed around them, but Rose saw her grip on the cord loosen, and she looked directly at the Doctor, for the first time the glow in her eyes reduced to nothing but calm pools of molten gold. "Is it that simple, Timelord? Is that it?"

"Is what it?" he asked, tone unreadable.

"I feel it on you now; you were hiding it so well before. The taint of love. It burns in your body like hot coals. Is that what lets you persist? Is that it?"

He was quiet, but only for a moment. "Some things aren't meant to be known," he repeated.

Rose saw something wild appear on Bad Wolf's face. It was like a smile, but more alien, more dangerous. "Of course I could not expect a straight answer from you."

"Smart of you," he said in a strange voice.

She looked down at the golden cord, wrapped around her middle. "I do think that I will return."

"Someday, yes."

"Hmm." she said. "Until then, Timelord." Bad Wolf released the cord, and literally jumped forward, instantly snapped up by the pull of the TARDIS. There was a fierce gold light, so bright and blinding and terrible that Rose missed what happened next. All she could tell afterward was that the flash had originated from the heart of the TARDIS. When the light faded away, and she could safely open her eyes again, the hatch to the heart of the TARDIS was firmly closed, and Bad Wolf was gone. All that remained to keep her existence a reality was the ragged shape the Doctor was in, and the smoking debris of the explosion around them.

"Best wake everyone up," the Doctor said, not turning to face Rose.

She looked up at him. "What-"

"Bad Wolf has been sent back into the heart of the TARDIS."

"No, not that," Rose said. "What was she talking about, before she-"

He turned, very slowly, and gave her a knowing look. "Unimportant. Now, help me wake everyone up."

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><p>HRRRRMMMMM. More to come soon, I suppose.<p> 


	28. Chapter 28 Old and New

Hey guys look! I actually posted something.

**Lissical**: Could you maybe do your thing, and provide me with a link to The God Complex?

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><p>The mood in the TARDIS was subdued.<p>

Rose had managed to give a shaky explanation of what had happened, at least in the best way she could word it. She left out what Bad Wolf had mentioned about love, and the Doctor's mysterious comment, but besides that everyone fully understood what they'd missed. Now, they were sitting in the console room, staring out the open doors of the TARDIS and onto the rocky landscape that had been their home for the past three days.

Donna, Martha and Rose were sitting on the safety bar by the steps that led outside, while Rory and Amy where similarly positioned together, but farthest from the door. River was by herself, but also closest to the Doctor, who was leaning on the console facing the door.

"Say goodbye," he said quietly.

"Where are we going now?" Martha asked.

"Since Bad Wolf is back where she belongs, her teleport mechanism should be gone. I'm taking you all home."

There was a long period of silence, which Donna finally broke. "I haven't exploded yet, have I?"

"No, and I don't think you will. Bad Wolf reset your memory."

Donna frowned slightly, looking at the ground, and Rory said, "Alright, what about me and Amy?"

The Doctor looked at them, raising an eyebrow. "Shall we continue where we left off? Getting some things from your house, were you? Where were we headed next?"

"You said something about a planet with winged people," Amy prompted.

"Ah, yes. The Saalvas race, living on Hyreen in the galaxy of Sector 9. Lovely race, very beautiful, and great cooks, too."

He closed the doors to the TARDIS, then crossed the room to the other side of the console from where he'd been sitting. "Where to first?"

"Might as well go to my place," Martha said after a pause. "Parents are probably worried sick."

"Alright," he punched some buttons on the console, then stopped, looking up. "First, though..."

He pressed a button and an image of the infamous middle abyss appeared. Everyone felt the sudden tension in the room, and Rose thought she might be sick. "Tear in the universe," he said. "A huge rip in space, leading directly to the Void. I can't just leave that sitting here."

He pressed a single button, and nothing visible happened, but he seemed satisfied and Rose felt it – a slight tug at her chest, a pull at her heartstrings, and the distinct feeling that she'd just lost something. She looked down at her wrist, however, and saw that the thick purple cuff was still there.

"Right then Martha," The Doctor said, and the TARDIS fired up, heading to her house.

* * *

><p>Everyone stayed inside while the Doctor walked Martha to her front door. Just outside the patio the two of them stopped, and turned to each other.<p>

"Well, I guess this is it," she said, and added wryly, "Again."

He smiled. "Can't get rid of me."

"No," she laughed.

They were quiet for a moment, then the Doctor said, "Oh! I nearly forgot – I suppose you deserve an explanation. I'm assuming your sickness is gone?"

She blinked in surprise. "Yeah, how did you know?"

"Bad Wolf was causing it. It's because of that year that you spent walking the world – the year that never happened. The fact that you lived an entire twelve months that never existed messes with the way Bad Wolf projects her power into you, since she's the Time Vortex. It messed with your head and caused you to be sick."

"You already knew, didn't you?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I wasn't sure. I didn't know until Bad Wolf herself showed up, and then I didn't have time to mention it."

She laughed again. "Oh please, you're always sure! You knew the whole time!"

He smiled and made no attempt to protest.

They were both quiet for a moment, smiles slowly slipping off their faces. "Will you stay?" The Doctor asked.

She looked at the ground, her smile returning in a sad way. "I... no. I can't. I made that decision a long time ago, and I have to stick with it. Traveling the universe with you was fun, but... I can't get sucked in again. I can't let what happened before..." she trailed off. "You understand."

"I do," he said, and Martha couldn't figure out how he felt.

After a moment of silence, he added, "The sun is still rather low in the sky. By its position, I'd say only... five minutes have passed."

"My mum will wonder why I'm home so early," Martha said softly, with a small smile.

"Goodbye, Martha," he said sadly.

"Goodbye, Doctor."

She watched him walk back to the TARDIS, and then turned and started heading to her house. The others had already said goodbye earlier – she knew she would miss them, but she also knew that everyone at home was worried about her, and cared for her, even more so since the last time she'd seen the Doctor. They mentioned to her in passing about the look they often saw in her eyes – how she looked sad, and lost, the way a person did when trying to remember something very important to them that had slipped her mind. And she remembered her own voice, replying to them, saying, "No, I'm fine, I was just thinking."

"Oh, and Martha?" the Doctor's voice said, pulling her from her memories. She looked back to see him poking his head out of one of the TARDIS doors.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"If anything were ever to happen, or if there was any trouble, or need, or anything..." He gave her a serious look. "I still have that cell phone."

The TARDIS doors shut with a _click_.

* * *

><p>The goodbyes everyone shared with Donna were certainly teary ones. She had been surprised by how sad everyone seemed to see her go, but she, Martha, Rose and Amy had promised the others they would stay in touch, one way or another, and stay together. Donna didn't doubt them for a second.<p>

Now, here she was, standing outside her mother's house, staring at the porch and front door, at the short green grass in the yard and the faded white paint, things she saw everyday, but now she looked at them in a different light. Everything was different now.

"I guess this is it, then, Donna," the Doctor said quietly behind her.

Donna turned to look at him, and for a brief moment she saw the other's shape lined up against his. For a quick second, she saw the long trench coat, the hands shoved in pant's pockets, the faraway, wild look in the dark brown eyes, while at the same time seeing the thick, light brown suit, and plaid bow tie, and pale green eyes partially covered by a wild swoop of brown hair. In a moment, however, the image was gone, so fast she might have imagined it, and this new Doctor still stood in front of her.

"Yeah, I suppose it is," she said back.

"You won't come along?" He smiled. "Lots to see. I have a big tour planned for Amy and Rory, and you're welcome to come. Have you ever tried gravity-skiing? Neither have they. We could do it together. It's rather fun."

Again, Donna felt like the old Doctor was there – prodding and poking, pulling and pushing, baiting her in an impossible way. But she shook her head. "No, I can't."

"Why?"

"I just... I can't." She looked up at him. "Doctor, I've finally gotten my memories back. All that time we spent together, those things we did... You yourself, and the TARDIS, and space, and all of it. I can't risk losing that again. I'd rather stay here and remember than go off and risk losing it all in one blow."

"The odds of you losing your memory again are so low. In fact, I'd bet-"

"No," she sighed, and smiled very slightly. "I can't. I'm just glad to have my memories back."

"Alright. Goodbye." He began walking back to the TARDIS. "And Donna?"

"Yes?"

He smiled, and winked very slightly, and once again Donna thought she could see the old Doctor. "Good luck," he said.

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><p>I'm expecting 2-3 more chapters left. Prepare yourselves.<p> 


	29. Chapter 29 Leaving

AHAHAHA The end is near! And guys, my Deviantart is so alone. If it had eyes, it would cry.

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><p>The sun was still crawling up the sky, which was a brilliant light blue color. A few pure white clouds drifted lazily in the perfect azure, speckled with gold from the sun and casting visible shadows on the cracked pavement. A gentle, deliciously cool wind stirred the trees in the park in Cardiff. Rose had to admit it was an absolutely fantastic day.<p>

"Where will you go?" The Doctor asked behind her from where he stood, leaning against the TARDIS.

"I don't know," she said, watching the birds chase each other about the trees, screeching happily and sending plumes of leaves flying as they played their game. It was still hard to remind herself that this was a different universe, different from the one she'd been living in before. She'd spent the first twenty years of her life here. Those years felt like a dream now – a memory, or story, told to her when she was young that she'd partially forgotten but was still stirred in her brain by little pinpricks of thought.

"You'll have to find somewhere to live," he said quietly.

"Yeah. I'll figure something out." she looked down at the grass.

"Here, take this," he said. She turned to see him holding out a bank note, and gasped at the amount, written clearly on the pale white paper.

"But... That's so much. Where did you-"  
>He smiled at her. "You don't think I haven't gained some riches in 900 years, do you?"<p>

She laughed softly, at a loss for words as she took the oh-so valuable paper. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I am. You're going to need a house, and a car, and furniture, and-"

Rose laughed again. "I know, I know! Still... It's awfully nice of you."

"Only the best for my companions." He smiled at her, but there was a sad look in his green eyes. "You won't stay." he said it as a statement, not a question.

She took a sudden interest in the note, staring down at it. "No. I... A lot's happened. I need time to... think. To be away from it all."

"I know." He was quiet for a moment. "Here." He pulled from his pocket a piece of paper and scribbled something on it with a spare pen. As he did, Rose couldn't help but wonder what other useful things he hid in his pockets. He handed her the paper, and she looked down to see it was a phone number.

"Donna and Martha have that too. If anything happens..."

"Call, I know." She nodded, smiled at him faintly, and put it in her pocket.

Slowly, and without really realizing it, the two of them both glanced down at the dark purple cuff around Rose's left wrist.

"It'll never go away, will it?" she asked.

"No," The Doctor said. "You accepted it from the Void. It'll never truly leave."

"So the Void will always be a part of me?"

His expression fell slightly. "Yes. But... Promise me something, Rose."

"What?"

"Don't go back in there." he said. "Don't ever teleport back into the Void. If you're in a fist fight, and need your blade, then don't get it. If someone's robbing a bank, and you want to fight them, don't use the Void. Don't ever use it again."

She saw, in his eyes, a dark look, a helpless one, filled with pain and worry and guilt. "I won't."

He stepped back, hand finding the door to the TARDIS on its own. "See you around?"

She smiled. "I guess."

He turned, putting his key into the door's lock, and Rose quickly called, "Doctor?"

"Hmm?"

"What about River?"

This question could have been taken many different ways. But as the Doctor raised his head and looked into Rose's eyes, they both knew what she meant. He looked down. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her."

He didn't say it in a cruel way, or mocking, or unfriendly in any way. He almost said it guiltily. But Rose understood. "Goodbye, Doctor."

He opened the door and smiled at her. "Bye, Rose Tyler."

As the machine whirred to life behind her, Rose stepped forward, walking casually in the park. Where should she go first? What kind of house did she want to buy? She smiled to herself. She should probably cash in this bank note first, and then...

And then...

Rose frowned. And then...

Everything was gone, after all. She was alone here. But that didn't mean she couldn't have fun. It's what her family would've wanted. It's what her Doctor would've wanted. It's what this Doctor would've wanted.

She had to remember them in happiness. _Maybe I should go visit our old flat_, She mused, smiling slightly.

* * *

><p>"My turn now," River said, smiling, as the Doctor walked back into the TARDIS.<p>

"Yes, I suppose it is." he said back. "Where to?"

"Might as well drop me off at that prison. Nothing too torturous there."

"Won't you get punished for running away?" Rory asked.

She shrugged. "They're terribly weak on security. The worst I'll get is a stronger cell, and I'm not against that. The one I was in was simply ghastly."

One TARDIS trip later, the four of them were standing at the foot of the thick forest where they'd first picked up River. Everything was the same, but for the far-off sound of shouting guards, the barking of hunting dogs, and the faint report of a tracking whistle.

"Sure you'll be alright?" Amy asked River.

"Oh, sure. I think I'm a crowd favorite at this place." she smiled, and passed the Doctor a wink. "Bye, Sweetie."

"Goodbye, River. Don't do anything stupid."

After exchanging some hugs and goodbyes with everyone, River started walking alone towards the trees. "See you later, Doctor!" She called behind her shoulder.

"There she goes. Crazy woman," Rory murmured.

"No kidding." Amy said, laughing softly. "Well come on, Doctor."

The two of them retreated into the TARDIS, and the Doctor made to follow, pausing for a second to look up at the alien sky above them. "Crazy indeed," he murmured knowingly, and went inside.

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><p>:D The next chapter will probably be pretty short.<p> 


	30. Chapter 30 The Spire's Power

AHHHH :D

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><p>The Doctor closed the doors to the TARDIS and turned. "And then there were two."<p>

Amy and Rory were sitting in the Doctor's chair by the console, very close together. "Well, I'm glad we finally got to meet some of your other little friends." Amy replied, grinning.

"Fat lot of trouble they all cause," he replied with a smile as he crossed the room, sitting on the safety bar to watch them.

"Sad, though, everything that happened." Rory murmured.

The Doctor nodded. "But enough of that. Where should we go? Plenty of places to explore... I have lots of different ideas..."

As the Doctor launched into a long rant about the many different and varying planets in Sector BW Alpha 8, Amy's mind drifted off to everything that had happened. She descended into sadness as she tried to recall what had happened before the explosion. Bad Wolf, raising her hand to kill everyone, and Amy thinking, _If the Doctor doesn't do something soon, I'll have to distract her_. Then she remembered seeing the Doctor raise his screwdriver, and watching as the explosion happened. She remembered floating numbly through the air on a hot wave of fire, pain barely noticeable, and thinking, _I'm going to die. I'll never be able to save the Doctor_.

And then, being shaken awake by Rose, and hearing the story of what had happened, and thinking, _Bad Wolf's gone. She was the only one who might have been able to help us save the Doctor's life._

Yes, it was true. Amy would have thrown everything away if it meant stopping that girl in the astronaut's suit. She would've done anything.

"Amy?" Rory asked, sounding concerned. "Where should we go?"

"Sorry, what?" the fiery-haired girl asked, shaking herself from her reverie.

"Stay with us, Amy!" The Doctor exclaimed. "We've narrowed it down – The Thalyn Spires of Tyr, or Haarac's Caverns?"

"I've had enough of caves," she said, waving a hand. "The Thalyn.. thing."

"Spires it is!" he exclaimed, and began punching buttons and flicking switches on the TARDIS.

"You alright?" Rory asked her.

"Yeah, fine. Just thinking..."

"About?"

"Him. And, you know..."

"Shh," Rory hissed hurriedly. "And I know. But he'll work it out. He always does."

"I hope you're right." Amy said.

The Spires were breathtakingly beautiful – big, thin, pointed obelisks, humming and tinged by a blue, electric smoke that the Doctor said powered the city. They were a slate gray color, but scaled like a snake, and shimmering almost magically. On any other day, Amy would have been entranced. But today, the Spires did nothing. Rory noticed.

"Don't think about it," he said. "Just look at this. Live in the moment."

Amy remembered Rose, Donna, River and Martha, and she smiled slightly. The four of them were such powerful, brave women, ready to do what was needed. Why wasn't she more like them? "You're right, Rory. Race you to that Spire!"

They ran, laughing, relishing the cool air of the alien planet, and watching the twin alien suns set with a feeling of hope.

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><p>I SAID it would be short. Gosh.<p> 


	31. A Note From the Author

Firstly, I would like to thank all of you for showing any interest in 30 chapters of my ideas.

Secondly, I would like to thank you again for reviewing this, if you did. Seriously. Reviews are the only reason I keep this thing going - without them, I would think I had no fanbase, and therefore lose interest and stop writing it. It's entirely your fault that this thing ever got finished.

Thirdly, I'd like to mention my own talk of a sequel. I have considered writing a second - and maybe even third - to this plotline. I don't know when I'll do it, if I do, but there's defintely going to be a break before it happens. Subscribe to my author feed, and watch out! :D

Fourth(ly?), chasing the tail end of that last one, I'd like to ramble for a second about my fanfictions. Whenever I write a fanfiction, for anything, I tend to tie together all of my plotlines. In otherwords, if I were to write a story that, for example, took place during season 4, I would consider it something that happened before this story, even if the two plots had nothing to do with each other whatsoever. I do plan on writing some other stories from all different ends and angles of the series, but I'd consider them all part of the same universe. Keep that in mind when reading future fictions.

Fifth(ly? I mean, really...) and finally, give my Deviantart some love, guys. If you know any people who are massively obsessed with Deviantart and like Doctor Who, show it to them on there. My Deviantart is just curled up in a ball of lonely sadness right now.

So yeah. Love you all, and look out for future stuff! :D

And now, with satisfaction, I check the "Completed" box...


End file.
